Sergio Batista

Sergio Batista

Personal information
Full name	Sergio Daniel Batista
Date of birth	November 9, 1962 (1962-11-09)
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Defensive midfielder (retired)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1981–1988	Argentinos Juniors	253	(25)
1988–1990	River Plate	52	(2)
1991	Argentinos Juniors	19	(0)
1992–1993	Nueva Chicago	5	(0)
1995–1996	Tosu Futures	95	(5)
1997–1999	All Boys	60	(1)
National team
1985–1990	Argentina	39	(0)
Teams managed
2000	Bella Vista
2001–2003	Argentinos Juniors
2003	Talleres
2004	Argentinos Juniors
2004–2005	Nueva Chicago
2007	Godoy Cruz
2007–2010	Argentina U-20 / Olympic
2010–2011	Argentina
Honours Competitor for Argentina Men's Football Gold 2008 Beijing Team competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Sergio Daniel "Checho" Batista (born 9 November 1962) is an Argentine football manager and former footballer. He played as a midfielder, and represented his national team 39 times between 1985 and 1990. He was head coach of Argentina national football team from July 2010 to July 2011.

Playing career

Club

Batista played youth football in Argentinos Juniors, and debuted with the first team in 1981. With Argentinos, he won the 1984 Metropolitano and 1985 Nacional of the Argentine Primera División, as well as the 1985 Copa Libertadores.

In 1988, Batista moved to River Plate, helping the team to win the 1989–90 league title. Before retiring as a player, Batista played for Nueva Chicago and All Boys in Argentina, as well as Tosu Futures in Japan.

National team

As part of the Argentina national football team, Batista won the 1986 FIFA World Cup and was runner-up of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Managerial career

Batista started his managerial career with Uruguayan club Bella Vista in 2000. He then had two spells with Argentinos Juniors, one with Talleres de Córdoba and another with Nueva Chicago. Between 2005 and 2006, he was assistant to Oscar Ruggeri in San Lorenzo.

In October 2007, the former midfielder was appointed as the head coach of the Argentine under-20 national team, replacing Hugo Tocalli. He also managed the Argentine Olympic football team that won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

After the 2010 World Cup, Argentine national team manager Diego Maradona did not renew his contract, and Batista was appointed as caretaker manager on 27 July 2010. In his role, Batista led Argentina to two wins (1–0 over Ireland and 4–1 over World Cup holders Spain) and suffered a defeat against Japan 0–1. Three months later, he was named the official head coach of the Argentine national team. In his first match after being officialized as Argentina's coach, his team defeated Brazil 1–0, with a 90th minute goal by Lionel Messi. On 25 July 2011, the AFA announced that Bastita had stepped down as manager of the Argentina national team after poor results in Copa America.

Honours

As a player

Argentinos Juniors

• Argentine Primera División (2): 1984 Metropolitano, 1985 Nacional
• Copa Libertadores (1): 1985

River Plate

• Argentine Primera División (1): 1989–90

Argentina

• FIFA World Cup (1): 1986

As a manager

Argentina

• Summer Olympics Tournament Gold Medal (1): 2008

External links

• Sergio Batista at National-Football-Teams.com
• Statistics at BDFA (Spanish)