Alfio Basile

Alfio Basile

Basile while playing for Racing Club in 1966.
Personal information
Full name	Alfio Basile
Date of birth	November 1, 1943 (1943-11-01)
Place of birth	Bahía Blanca, Argentina
Playing position	Centre-back
Club information
Current club	Racing Club (manager)
Youth career
	Bella Vista de Bahía Blanca
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1964–1970	Racing Club	163	(19)
1971–1975	Huracán	97	(4)
National team
1968–1973	Argentina	?	(?)
Teams managed
1975–1976	Chacarita Juniors
1976	Rosario Central
1978	Racing Club
1979	Racing de Córdoba
1980	Instituto de Córdoba
1981	Racing de Córdoba
1982	Huracán
1982	Nacional
1983	Racing de Córdoba
1983	Talleres de Córdoba
1984–1986	Vélez Sársfield
1986–1989	Racing Club
1989–1990	Vélez Sársfield
1991–1994	Argentina
1995	Atlético de Madrid
1996–1997	Racing Club
1998	San Lorenzo
2000–2001	América
2004	Colón de Santa Fe
2005–2006	Boca Juniors
2006–2008	Argentina
2009–2010	Boca Juniors
2012–	Racing Club
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 2007. † Appearances (Goals).

Alfio Basile (born 1 November 1943 in Bahía Blanca), known as Coco, is an Argentine football coach and former player. He is currently in his fourth spell with Racing Club de Avellaneda.

Playing career

Basile started his playing career at the Bella Vista club in his home city. From 1964 to 1970 he played for Racing Club, and then for Huracán, where he was a mainstay of the 1973 Metropolitano champions under coach Cesar Luis Menotti. As a player, he was most famous for being the steady anchor of the Racing Club and Huracán championship teams.

International

He also played for the Argentina national football team. Basile retired as a player in 1975.

Titles as a player

Season	Club	Title
1966	Racing Club	Primera División Argentina
1967	Racing Club	Copa Libertadores
1967	Racing Club	Copa Intercontinental
Metropolitano 1973	Huracán	Primera División Argentina

Managerial career

After retirement as a player, Basile coached a number of Argentine teams, most notably Rosario Central, Racing Club, Huracán, Vélez Sársfield, Uruguayan Nacional, and Atlético Madrid.

His career as a coach reached its first peak in the early 1990s, when he led the Argentina national football team to two Copa America victories. The run-up to the 1994 FIFA World Cup looked smooth until a 5-0 defeat at home to Colombia. Following that traumatic event, Diego Maradona was brought back from retirement to take part in the play-off against Australia.

In the World Cup itself, Argentina opened with two impressive victories over Greece and Nigeria. However, controversy was soon to appear. Maradona was tested for doping after the Nigeria match, and was suspended after ephedrine was found in his sample. Argentina still progressed to the last 16 despite a 2-0 defeat by Bulgaria, but morale was shattered and the team was eliminated after losing to Romania.

After resigning over the World Cup disappointment, Basile went on to coach San Lorenzo de Almagro, Club América of México and Colón de Santa Fe with varying degrees of success. In July 2005 he assumed the post of coach at Boca Juniors, winning the Recopa Sudamericana 2005 just a month later. He then won his first Argentine league title in the 2005 Apertura tournament. Four days later, Boca won the Copa Sudamericana 2005 against UNAM Pumas of Mexico.

In July 2006, he was once again offered the position of Argentina national football team coach and accepted the job taking over from José Pekerman. Before starting his new job, Basile stayed with Boca Juniors until September 14, 2006, when the team won a second consecutive Recopa Sudamericana 2006 with a victory over São Paulo FC of Brazil.

Vocal about his preference for the Italian Serie A and the Spanish La Liga over the English league, he made waves in England when he called for Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano to transfer to Italy, claiming the switch would be better for the latter "even if he would have to play in the second division" with Juventus.

On 16 October 2008, amidst the controversy over the historical defeat that Argentina suffered against Chile in the World Cup qualifiers, Basile tended his resignation. This eventually paved the road to the first appointment of Diego Maradona as national team coach. As a coach, Basile had in total two tenures at the helm of the Argentina national football team, 1991–1994 and 2006–2008.

On July 1, 2009 Alfio "Coco" Basile has returned to Boca Juniors after three years, replacing Carlos Ischia. But after a series of bad results, especially the failure to qualify for the Copa Libertadores 2010 and a crushing 3-1 defeat to archrivals River Plate during a summer tournament at Mar del Plata, he resigned on 21 January 2010.

On 26 December 2011, Basile returned to the Racing Club for his fourth spell as their coach, taking over from Diego Simeone.

Titles as a manager

Season	Club	Title
1988	Racing Club	Supercopa Sudamericana
1991	Argentina	Copa América
1992	Argentina	King Fahd Cup
1993	Argentina	Copa América
2005	Boca Juniors	Recopa Sudamericana
Apertura 2005	Boca Juniors	Primera Division Argentina
2005	Boca Juniors	Copa Sudamericana
Clausura 2006	Boca Juniors	Primera Division Argentina
2006	Boca Juniors	Recopa Sudamericana

External links

• (Spanish) Futbol Factory profile (Archived)
• Terra.com profile

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Luis Alberto Cubilla	South American Coach of the Year 1991	Succeeded by Tele Santana
Preceded by First winner	FIFA Confederations Cup winning manager 1992	Succeeded by Richard Møller Nielsen