Juan Ramón Rocha

Juan Ramón Rocha

Rocha playing for Boca Juniors
Personal information
Full name	Juan Ramón Rocha
Date of birth	(1954-03-08) 8 March 1954
Place of birth	Santo Tomé, Argentina
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Thesprotos (manager)
Youth career
1960–1970	Avanti Santo Tome Academy
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1972–1978	Newell's Old Boys	135	(26)
1978–1979	Junior	15	(3)
1979–1980	Boca Juniors	26	(3)
1980–1989	Panathinaikos	227	(13)
Total		403	(45)
International career
1973–1977	Argentina	3	(0)
Managerial career
1989–1990	Paniliakos
1990–1991	Ilisiakos
1991–1992	Kalamata
1994–1996	Panathinaikos
1997–1999	Aris
1999	Panathinaikos
2001–2003	Skoda Xanthi
2006–2007	Ilisiakos
2007–2008	Olympiakos Nicosia
2008–2012	Panathinaikos U20
2012–2013	Panathinaikos
2017–2018	Ruch Chorzów
2019–	Thesprotos
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of August 28, 2007

Juan Ramón Rocha (born 8 March 1954) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the current manager of Greek Football League club Thesprotos.

Playing career

Born in Santo Tomé, Corrientes, Rocha began his professional career at Newell's Old Boys in 1972, he was part of their Metropolitano winning team in 1974. He moved to Boca Juniors in 1979 and played in 1979 Copa Libertadores finals. In 1980, he was transferred to Greek soccer club Panathinaikos where he played until his retirement on July 1, 1989.

Nicknamed The Indian, Rocha was a skillful player, with vision and remarkable sportsmanship. He is considered by many one of the greatest players in the team's history. Rocha was first signed for Panathinaikos under the name Boublis with Greek papers; the subsequent discovery of record falsifications and ensuing scandal almost landed Rocha in jail and Panathinaikos in the second division. These allegations were later dismissed and both Panathinaikos and Rocha were acquitted. This was one of the many cases of "hellenization" of foreign players for many Greek soccer clubs.

Managerial career

After retirement he started coaching, first Paniliakos in where he was coach-player at the Fourth Division, then Iliasiakos, Kalamata FC and Skoda Xanthi. He was also the coach of Panathinaikos's semi final run in the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League. He also managed Olympiakos Nicosia in Cyprus.

He is now member of the scouting team of Panathinaikos, mostly searching players in Argentina and Southern America. After Jesualdo Ferreira resigned at 14 November 2012, Rocha once more became the manager of Panathinaikos.

On 11 September 2017 he was introduced as the coach of Ruch Chorzów.

Honours

Player

Newell's Old Boys

• Metropolitano: 1974

Panathinaikos

• Greek Cup: 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989
• Greek First Division: 1983–84, 1985–86

Manager

Panathinaikos

• Greek Cup: 1995
• Greek First Division: 1994–95, 1995–96

External links

• Official site at the Wayback Machine (archived March 27, 2008)
• Boca Juniors biography (in Spanish)