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Daniel Alberto Passarella (born May 25 , 1953 in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires Province ) is a former Argentine Football Defender and the former manager of the Argentine and Uruguayan national football teams. Young Daniel started his career at Sarmiento of Junin, Buenos Aires province. From there he joined River Plate , then Fiorentina of Italy and briefly, Inter Milan . After his successful spell in Serie A , he returned to River Plate, where he played until his retirement. He was called "El Gran Capitán" (the great captain) or "Kaiser" because of his leadership ability and his passion and organisation on the field. He was an extremely dangerous player, he became history's top scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches (that record was since broken by Dutch defender Ronald Koeman ). His heading skill was unrivalled, both defensively and in attack. Passarella loved scoring headers in spite of his unimpressive height (1.73 m). He was also noted for using his elbows against rivals whilst managing to avoid the referee's gaze. One of the pillars of the Argentine National Team , he eventually captained the side. He was a fundamental part of the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina. He was the first Argentine player to hold the World Cup , as it was handed to him first when Argentina won the final. During the qualifying rounds of the 1986 World Cup , Passarella scored the goal which ensured Argentina's qualification in the final minutes of their match against Peru . A bout of Enterocolitis meant that he missed the main event in Mexico. He was replaced in the first team by defender José Luis Brown. He had a fractious relationship with star player Diego Maradona and coach Carlos Bilardo during the tournament, he later claimed Bilardo and Maradona made sure that he was sidelined. Even so, by being a part of the squad, he became the only player to feature in both Argentina's World Cup-winning teams. After his playing days were over, he became the coach of River Plate, where he won several national titles. Appointed as coach of the Argentine national team to replace Alfio Basile , Passarella was coach during the qualification games for the 1998 World Cup and during the competition itself, which was held in France . Argentina's performances never reached the expected heights, the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals after a last minute 2-1 defeat to the Netherlands . Throughout his tenure as manager Passarella courted controversy by refusing to select any players with, in his opinion, excessively long hair (notably Gabriel Batistuta ) or homosexuals. Passarella left the post to be replaced by Marcelo Bielsa . Passarella then became coach of Uruguay , but he left the post during the qualifying games for the 2002 World Cup held in Japan and Korea, after having problems summoning players from Uruguayan sides. After that episode, Passarella had a brief and unsuccessful period as coach of Italian side Parma during 2001 . In 2003 , he won the Mexican football league title with the team CF Monterrey . In March 2004 , he was named by Pelé as one of the Top 125 Greatest Living Footballers . He recently was hired as coach of Corinthians , but was fired after a few months, after the team went through a string of terrible results. Some character issues associated with the "Kaiser" have irked the Argentine press and fans over the years.
On January 9, he was appointed River Plate coach again after 12 years to occupy the vacancy left by Reinaldo Merlo 's sudden departure. EXTERNAL LINKS
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