Ramón Díaz

Ramón Díaz
Personal information
Full name Ramón Ángel Díaz
Date of birth (1959-08-29) 29 August 1959
Place of birth La Rioja, Argentina
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current team
 Al-Hilal (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1978–1981 River Plate 123 (57)
1982–1983 Napoli 25 (3)
1983–1986 Avellino 78 (22)
1986–1988 Fiorentina 53 (17)
1988–1989 Internazionale 33 (12)
1989–1991 Monaco 60 (24)
1991–1993 River Plate 52 (27)
1993–1995 Yokohama Marinos 75 (52)
Total 499 (215)
National team
1979 Argentina U20 6 (8)
1979–1982 Argentina 22 (10)
Teams managed
1995–2000 River Plate
2001–2002 River Plate
2004–2005 Oxford United
2007–2008 San Lorenzo
2008–2009 América
2010–2011 San Lorenzo
2011–2012 Independiente
2012–2014 River Plate
2014–2016 Paraguay
2016– Al-Hilal

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Ramón Ángel Díaz (born 29 August 1959) is a former Argentine footballer and manager. He played for Club Atlético River Plate as a striker, and coached it for three tenures, winning eight titles. He is also known by the nickname of El Pelado ("Baldy"). He is currently manages Al-Hilal in the Saudi Professional League.

Life and career

Díaz was born in La Rioja. He won the World Youth Cup in 1979 with the Argentina under-20 team alongside Diego Maradona. He also played in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and scored against Brazil in Argentina's 3–1 defeat. It had been rumoured that he and Maradona were involved in a feud which prevented Diaz from playing for Argentina in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups. However, this was denied by Maradona in his autobiography "El Diego", claiming that he had told the then-Argentina manager, Carlos Bilardo, that he wanted Diaz in both the 1986 and 1990 World Cup squads.[1]

Diaz played in River Plate's youth system under Norberto "El Pacha" Yacono, who recommended Diaz to his "Maquina" Teammate Angel Labruna who was coaching the senior side.

Díaz played as a forward. His opening game in the Argentine First Division was on 13 August 1978, a game where River Plate beat Colón de Santa Fe by 1–0. He scored his first goal on 30 August of that year, playing against Quilmes Atlético Club. His last game was on 13 March 1993.

Managerial career

Díaz served as the manager of River Plate between 1995 and 2003, in that time he guided the club to victory in the 1996 Copa Libertadores as well as collecting five league titles and the Supercopa Sudamericana.

Ramón Díaz served as manager of League Two English club Oxford United between 2004 and 2005, despite already having achieved considerable success in his native Argentina. At the time, Diaz told the media: "I like English football and I wanted to get first-hand experience of it...I'd seen plenty of it on television...It's also very interesting to work at this level, because it's completely different from football at the top." It was also claimed that neither Diaz nor any of his five backroom staff were being paid by Oxford United for their services.[2]

In 2007 he was appointed head coach of San Lorenzo, in the Argentine Primera. In his first season with the club he led them to the Clausura 2007 championship title, the club's first title in six years. In 2008, Diaz was confirmed as the new Club América coach. Although the club did not reveal specific details about Diaz' contract,[3] he was reportedly offered 1.5 million dollars per year including performance-related bonuses which could have taken his total earnings to 6 million dollars.[4] He was fired on 10 February 2009.

On 5 March 2012, Ramón Díaz quit Independiente, The 52-year-old coach resigned from his position at the King of Cups, who had been struggling and found themselves at the very bottom of the table.[5] Later that year he was appointed coach of River Plate for the third time. Two years later, he left River Plate to become the manager of the Paraguay national team. On 12 June 2016, following an unsuccessful run at Copa America Centenario, he resigned as manager of Paraguay.[6]

Career statistics

Club

[7]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Argentina League Cup League Cup Total
1978River PlatePrimera División145145
197922122212
198040224022
198147184718
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Total
1982–83NapoliSerie A253253
1983–84AvellinoSerie A247247
1984–85275275
1985–8627102710
1986–87FiorentinaSerie A29102910
1987–88247247
1988–89InternazionaleSerie A331271324315
France League Coupe de France Coupe de la Ligue Total
1989–90MonacoDivision 128152815
1990–91329329
Argentina League Cup League Cup Total
1991–92River PlatePrimera División31203120
1992–93217217
Japan League Emperor's Cup J.League Cup Total
1993Yokohama MarinosJ1 League322831534032
1994372342314426
19956100-61
Country Argentina 1758417584
Italy 1895418954
France 60246024
Japan 755273849059
Total 4992147384514221

National team

Argentina national team
YearAppsGoals
197911
198094
198141
198284
Total2210

Honours

Player

River Plate
Internazionale
Monaco
Argentina

Manager

River Plate
San Lorenzo

Individual

Notes

  1. ↑ The "Superfinal" is considered as a national cup by the Argentine Football Association.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Ramon Diaz: Globe-trotting thoroughbred commits to Oxford cause
  2. ↑ Ramon Diaz: Globe-trotting thoroughbred commits to Oxford cause
  3. ↑ Ramón Díaz ya es nuevo técnico del América
  4. ↑ Ramón fue presentado en América de México
  5. ↑ http://www.goal.com/en/news/585/argentina/2012/03/05/2947124/ramon-diaz-quits-independiente
  6. ↑ http://www.espnfc.co.uk/paraguay/story/2891510/paraguay-manager-ramon-diaz-resigns-following-copa-elimination
  7. ↑ Ramón Díaz at National-Football-Teams.com
  8. ↑ "La AFA homologó la Superfinal de River como una Copa Nacional", Cancha Llena.com, 28 May 2014
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.