Helenio Herrera

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Helenio Herrera
Personal information
Full name Helenio Herrera
Date of birth 17 April 1910 (1910-04-17)
Place of birth    Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death    November 9, 1997 (aged 87)
Place of death    Venice, Italy
Teams managed
1944-1945
1945-1948
1949
1949-1952
1952
1953
1953-1956
1956-1958
1958-1960
1960-1968
1968-1973
1973-1974
1978-1979
1979-1981
Puteaux
Stade Français
Real Valladolid
Atlético Madrid
CD Málaga
Deportivo de La Coruña
Sevilla FC
CF Os Belenenses
Barcelona
F.C. Internazionale
AS Roma
F.C. Internazionale
Rimini
Barcelona


* Appearances (Goals)

Helenio Herrera (born April 17, 1910 in Buenos Aires; died November 9, 1997 in Venice) was a French-Argentine football player and manager. Herrera had a relatively modest career as a player but, with 16 major titles, he became not only one of the most successful, but also one of the most influential managers in the history of the game.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

There is a controversy regarding his year of birth, as, in the 50s, he manipulated his birth year changing it to from 1910 to 1916. While born in Argentina, Herrera emigrated at age four with his parents (both Spanish) to Casablanca, Morocco where he adopted French citizenship. Playing as a defender, in 1932 he earned a transfer from RC Casablanca to mainland France - CASG Paris. Before World War II, Herrera (or H.H. as he was known) played in Stade Français, FCO Charleville (where he was called up for the national team twice) and Excelsior Roubaix. During the war, he played for five years more in Red Star Paris, Stade Français, EF Paris-Capitale and Puteaux, where he started his managing career in 1944 as a player-manager. He retired in 1945, and while his playing career was very short of notable, his managing career, coinciding with the early beginnings of UEFA competitions, had a marked effect on the game's tactical definitions.

[edit] Managing career

Helenio Herrera in the glory days with Inter
Helenio Herrera in the glory days with Inter

After his first season in Puteaux, Herrera rejoined Stade Français for a third time now as manager. After three seasons with no trophies collected, the club's president opted to sell the franchise. Herrera moved to Spain, where he spent the next six years in minor stints with Real Valladolid, Atlético Madrid, CD Málaga, Deportivo de La Coruña and Sevilla FC, before entering a two year tenure with Lisbon side CF Os Belenenses. Later returning to Spain, he managed giants FC Barcelona, but several problems, including disagreements between him and star player Ladislao Kubala obliged him to leave the club in 1960.

He emigrated to Italy and signed with Internazionale, winning two European Champions Cup in his stay with the club, where he modified a 5-3-2 tactic known as the Verrou (door bolt) to include larger flexibility for counter attacks - and the Catenaccio was born. During this time he was also coaching Spain (between 1959 and 1962) and Italy (1966-67). In 1968 the moved to AS Roma (winning one cup), but returned for a one year stint with Inter for the 1973-74 season. Then suffered a heart attack, did not want to coach full time anymore and retired in Venice where he lived the rest of his life. While inactive between 1974 and 1978, Herrera returned briefly during the end of the decade, managing Rimini Calcio and finally ending his career with a return to FC Barcelona for two half seasons in 1980 and 1981.

[edit] Influence

He pioneered the use of psychological motivating skills -his pep-talk phrases are still quoted today, e.g. "who doesn't give it all, gives nothing" or "with 10 our team plays better than with 11" (after his team had to face the second half of a game with only 10 players on the field). He also enfored a strict discipline code, for the first time forbidding players to drink or smoke and controlling their diet - once in Inter he suspended a player after telling the press "we came to play in Rome" instead of "we came to win in Rome". He was also one of the first managers to call the support of the "12th player" - the spectators. While indirectly, this led to the appearance of the first Ultras movements in the late 60s. While defensive in nature, his take on the Catenaccio was slightly different than that practiced by other Italian teams and the original Verrou, as he often used the full backs (particularly Giacinto Facchetti) as wingbacks (defensively supported by the libero) to launch faster counter-attacks, a staple of Italian tactics - yet, he never denied the heart of his team relied on defense. He was also the first manager to collect credit for his teams' performances. Up to that time managers were more marginal figures in a team. All teams were known for their headline-grabbing individual players, exampled by such a star like Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, whereas Inter FC during the 60s is still referred to as Herrera's Inter. After Herrera, managers such as Johan Cruijff (FC Barcelona 1988/96), Fabio Capello (AC Milan 1991/96) or José Mourinho (FC Porto 2002/2004) were publicly lent and given most of the credit for producing a successful team.

[edit] Titles

Altogether Helenio Herrera won 16 major titles in his coaching career. Here is an overview:

Atlético de Madrid 1950 - Championship
1951 - Championship
FC Barcelona 1959 - Championship
1959 - Spanish Cup
1959 - Inter City Fairs Cup (UEFA Cup)

1960 - Championship
1960 - Inter City Fairs Cup (UEFA Cup)
1981 - Spanish Cup

Internazionale FC 1963 - Championship
1964 - European Champions Cup
1964 - Intercontinental Cup
1965 - Championship
1965 - European Champions Cup
1965 - Intercontinental Cup
1966 - Championship
AS Roma 1969 - Italian Cup

Helenio Herrera was the first coach that coached three national teams:

1946-1948: France (as coach to the management of Gaston Barreau) 1959-1962: Spain (famously at the 1962 FIFA World Cup) 1966-1967: Italy (together with Ferruccio Valcareggi)

Since then, most prominently Guus Hiddink, coaching the Netherlands, South Korea, Australia and Russia as well as Bora Milutinović, coaching Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States, Nigeria, China, Honduras and Jamaica have surpassed him.

[edit] Managerial stats

Nat Team From To Record
G W L D Win % GF GA +/-
Flag of France Stade Français 1946 1948 72 34 16 22 47.22% 140 116 +24
Flag of Spain Real Valladolid 1948 1949 26 10 2 14 38.46% 38 59 -21
Flag of Spain Atlético Madrid 1949 1952 86 48 14 24 55.81% 238 158 +80
Flag of Spain CD Málaga 1952 1952 11 5 1 5 45.45% 20 17 +3
Flag of Spain Sevilla FC 1953 1956 90 47 8 35 52.22% 206 151 +55
Flag of Portugal CF Os Belenenses 1956 1958 52 25 11 16 48.08% 128 92 +36
Flag of Spain Barcelona 1958 1960 60 46 5 9 76.67% 182 54 +128
Flag of Italy F.C. Inter 1960 1968 268 153 74 41 57.09% 485 224 +261
Flag of Italy AS Roma 1968 1973 150 44 61 45 29.33% 154 155 -1
Flag of Italy F.C. Inter 1973 1974 30 12 11 7 40% 47 33 +14
Flag of Italy Rimini 1978 1979 38 3 18 17 7.89% 17 39 -22
Flag of Spain Barcelona 1979 1981 25 14 5 6 56% 57 28 +29
Total Career 908 441 226 241 48.57% 1712 1126 +586


[edit] Trivia

Helenio Herrera was nicknamed il Mago (the Wizard) and H.H. (from the initials of his name) by Italian sports journalists (who recognized him as one of the finest coaches in Italian football history) because on occasion he would provocatively announce the results of Sunday's games and often his prediction turned out to be correct. He is unrelated with the less famous Heriberto Herrera, another football coach who directed Juventus and Inter in the same years.

Preceded by
Nereo Rocco
European Cup Winning Coach
1963-64 & 1964-65
Succeeded by
Miguel Muñoz

[edit] See also

[edit] External links