Ramón Ángel Díaz is a former
ArgentineArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
football player. For most of his career, he played for, and later coached,
Club Atlético River PlateClub Atlético River Plate is an Argentine sports club based in the Nuñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its professional football team, which currently competes in Nacional B, the second tier of Argentine football....
. He is also known by the
nicknameA nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
of
El Pelado ("Baldy").
Díaz won the World Youth Cup in 1979 with the
Argentina Under-20The Argentina national under-20 football team is the representative of Argentina in FIFA sponsored tournaments that pertain to that age level....
team alongside
Diego MaradonaDiego Armando Maradona is a retired Argentine football player and widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time. Over the course of his professional club career Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys, setting...
. He also played in the
1982 FIFA World CupThe 1982 FIFA World Cup, the 12th FIFA World Cup, was held in Spain from 13 June to 11 July. The tournament was won by Italy, after defeating West Germany 3–1 in the final.-Host selection:...
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.
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
forwardForwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...
. His opening game in the Argentine First Division was on 1978-08-13, a game where River Plate beat
Colón de Santa FeClub Atlético Colón, commonly referred to as Colón de Santa Fe, is a football team from Santa Fe, Argentina. As of Primera División Argentina 1946 the football squad plays in the highest division of Argentine football, and has done so continuously since 1995-96...
by 1–0. He scored his first goal on 30 August of that year, playing against
Quilmes Atlético ClubQuilmes Atlético Club is a sports clubs of Argentina, based on the Partido de Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province. Quilmes is one of the oldest clubs of Argentina, having been founded in 1887. Its football squad currently plays in the Primera B Nacional Division....
. His last game was on 1993-03-13.
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 SudamericanaThe Supercopa Sudamericana , also known as the Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa Libertadores, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a football club competition contested annually by the past winners of the Copa Libertadores...
.
Ramón Díaz served as manager of League Two
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
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.
In 2007 he was appointed head coach of
San LorenzoClub Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine sports club based in Boedo neighbourhood, Buenos Aires, mostly known because of its football team....
, in the
Argentine PrimeraThe Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
. In his first season with the club he led them to the
Clausura 20072006–07 season of Argentine football was the 116th season of competitive football in Argentina.-"Championship" playoff:Boca Juniors and Estudiantes de La Plata ended up tied in points at the end of the 19 weeks of regular season...
championship title, the club's first title in six years. In 2008, Diaz was confirmed as the new
Club AméricaClub América is a Mexican Professional football club based in Mexico City. It competes in the Primera División, the top professional league in the country. The team's nickname is Las Águilas ....
coach. Although the club did not reveal specific details about Diaz' contract, 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. He was fired on 10 February 2009.
Statistics
|-
|1978||rowspan="4"|River Plate||rowspan="4"|
Primera DivisiónThe Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
||14||5||||||||||14||5
|-
|1979||22||12||||||||||22||12
|-
|1980||40||22||||||||||40||22
|-
|1981||47||18||||||||||47||18
|-
|1982/83||
NapoliSocietà Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli, is a professional Italian football club based in Naples and founded in 1926. The club has spent most of its history in Serie A, where it currently plays its 2011–12 season....
||
Serie ASerie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||25||3||||||||||25||3
|-
|1983/84||rowspan="3"|Avellino||rowspan="3"|
Serie ASerie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||24||7||||||||||24||7
|-
|1984/85||27||5||||||||||27||5
|-
|1985/86||27||10||||||||||27||10
|-
|1986/87||rowspan="2"|
FiorentinaACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Fiorentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A...
||rowspan="2"|
Serie ASerie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||29||10||||||||||29||10
|-
|1987/88||24||7||||||||||24||7
|-
|1988/89||
InternazionaleFootball Club Internazionale Milano, often referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Italy. Outside Italy, the club is often called Inter Milan. They are the reigning FIFA Club World champions and Coppa Italia holders.Inter have always...
||
Serie ASerie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||33||12||||||||||33||12
|-
|1989/90||rowspan="2"|
MonacoAssociation Sportive de Monaco Football Club are a French football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. The club was founded in 1924 and currently play in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. The team plays its home matches at the Stade Louis II located within Fontvieille...
||rowspan="2"|
Division 1Ligue 1 , is the French professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division of the French football league system. Ligue 1 is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the other being Ligue 2....
||28||15||||||||||28||15
|-
|1990/91||32||9||||||||||32||9
|-
|1991/92||rowspan="2"|River Plate||rowspan="2"|
Primera DivisiónThe Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
||31||20||||||||||31||20
|-
|1992/93||21||7||||||||||21||7
|-
|1993||rowspan="3"|
Yokohama Marinosis a Japanese association football team that participates in the fully professional J. League Division 1; the top Japanese professional football league. Having won the J-League title three times and finished second twice, they are one of the most successful J-League clubs. The team are based in...
||rowspan="3"|J. League 1||32||28||3||1||5||3||40||32
|-
|1994||37||23||4||2||3||1||44||26
|-
|1995||6||1||0||0||colspan="2"|-||6||1
175||84||||||||||175||84
189||54||||||||||189||54
60||24||||||||||60||24
75||52||7||3||8||4||90||59
499||214||7||3||8||4||514||221
|}
He was the top scorer of the Apertura 1991, and Japan League's Scoring Champion in 1993.
Titles as coach for River
| Championship | Year |
| Copa Libertadores |
1996 |
| Argentine The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Apertura |
1996 |
| Argentine The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Clausura |
1997 |
Supercopa SudamericanaThe Supercopa Sudamericana , also known as the Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa Libertadores, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a football club competition contested annually by the past winners of the Copa Libertadores...
|
1997 |
| Argentine The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Apertura |
1997 |
| Argentine The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Apertura |
1999 |
| Argentine The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Clausura |
2002 |
He has the River coaching record of 7 championships.
Titles as coach for San Lorenzo de Almagro
| Championship | Year |
| Argentine The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Clausura |
2007 |
|-
|1979||1||1
|-
|1980||9||4
|-
|1981||4||1
|-
|1982||8||4
|-
!Total||22||10
|}
Individual Honors
- FIFA World Youth Championship Top Scorer: 1979
The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, the second staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in Japan from August 26 to September 7, 1979. The tournament took place in four venues — Kobe, Omiya, Tokyo and Yokohama — where a total of 32 matches were played, four more than in the...
- Primera División Argentina topscorer
This is a list of Argentine Primera División top scorers, that enumerates all players that have finished a season as top goalscorers in the top level of the Argentine football league system. These statistics only include seasons from the professional era of Argentine football...
Apertura 1991
- J. League Top Scorer
The J. League Top Scorer is awarded by the J.League to the top scoring player of the season.-Wins By Club:-See also:*Japanese football champions, for Japan Soccer League predecessors....
: 1993
- J. League Best Eleven: 1993
Team Honors
- FIFA World Youth Championship Champions: 1979
The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, the second staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in Japan from August 26 to September 7, 1979. The tournament took place in four venues — Kobe, Omiya, Tokyo and Yokohama — where a total of 32 matches were played, four more than in the...
- Italian Championship
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
1988-89
- Coupe de France
The Coupe Charles Simon, commonly known as the Coupe de France , is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation...
1991 with AS Monaco
- Primera División Argentina
The Primera División is a professional football league in Argentina. It is the country's premier football division and is at the top of the Argentine football league system. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional. The season runs...
Apertura 1991 with River Plate
External links
Futbol Factory profile (Archived)
Managerial statistics at Futbol XXI
Futbol Pasion statistics