Carlos Bianchi (born 26 April 1949), nicknamed ''El Virrey'' (''The Viceroy''), is an Argentine former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. A prolific goalscorer, although he had a bright career as a forward in Argentina and France, Bianchi is best known as one of the most successful coaches of all time managing Vélez Sarsfield and

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

to a great number of titles each. Bianchi is the only coach to win four

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

. He is also the only coach to secure three Intercontinental Cups, and shares with Josep Guardiola and

Carlo Ancelotti Carlo Ancelotti (; born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Brazil national team. Nicknamed "Carletto" in Italy and "Don Carlo" in Spain, he is regarded as one of the greatest ...

a joint-record of three club world championship titles. He most recently served as manager of Boca Juniors. Boca Juniors and Vélez Sársfield made him a statue.

Biography

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Bianchi was raised in a middle-class family. In 1972, he married Margaret Mary Pilla and they had two children: Mauro Carlos and Brenda. Now has four grandchildren: Paul, Carlos and Louis (who are sons of Mauro) and Mateo (son of Brenda and Huracán defender Eduardo Dominguez). His father worked in a sales position in which Carlos regularly helped until he made his debut as a player in first-division football for Vélez Sarsfield, the club which he was a fan of. During his tenure as coach of Vélez Sarsfield he was known as the "Virrey" (viceroy, in Spanish), named by sports writer Victor Hugo Morales. The reason is based on footballing and historical grounds as Bianchi obtained several titles as a player and coach with Vélez Sarsfield. The club is located in the neighborhood of Liniers alluding to the Virrey Liniers, who was in command of the

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata or Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires ( or Virreinato de Buenos Aires or ) meaning "River of the Silver", also called the "Viceroyalty of River Plate" in some scholarly writings, in southern South America, was ...

by early 1800.

Playing career

Beginning and consolidation

Like some many other Argentine men's footballers, Bianchi gave his first steps playing "baby fútbol", a five-a-side variant of

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

mainly played by children and youth, practised on smaller surfaces (usually

parquetry Parquet (; French for "a small compartment") is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring. Parquet patterns are often entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, Lozenge (shape), lozenges—but may co ...

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

or synthetic grass). At 11 years old, Bianchi started playing for Club Ciclón de Jonte, a type of subsidiary of Vélez SarsfieldUn orgullo llamado Vélez Sarsfield
on ESPN, 30 Dec 2009 A representative of the club saw Bianchi's potential and took him to play at the youth divisions of Vélez Sársfield. By the time he was 16 yo, Bianchi had been promoted to the third division. Bianchi was finally promoted to the first squad by Vélez Sarsfield manager Victorio Spinetto, making his debut with the team at the age of 18 in a 1–1 tie against

."Carlos Bianchi"
on AFA website One year later, Bianchi scored his first goal in Primera v

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its association football, football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was reco ...

, on July 7, 1968. One week later, Bianchi broke the long standing Amadeo Carrizo's record of 769 minutes with his goal unbeaten. With only 19 years old, Bianchi was part of the Vélez Sarsfield team that won the 1968 Nacional championship and was consecrated as the top scorer of 1970 Nacional championship with 18 goals and 1971 Metropolitano with 36.Castro Serna, Emmanuel
"Argentina – List of Topscorers"
on the

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

His good performances with the team and a serious injure of forward Omar Wehbe allowed Bianchi to be the centreforward of Vélez Sársfield.

European career

In 1973 Bianchi was signed by

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

, a French team of

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

. In his first season with the club, Bianchi was the top scorer of the league with 30 goals. Some of his most notable achievements in that year included the six goals scored in the 6–1 win over

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

. Bianchi was seriously injured in a friendly match v

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Parc des Princes The Parc des Princes (, ) is an all-seater stadium, all-seater football stadium in Paris, France. It is located in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin (P ...

so he missed the season. After he recovered, Bianchi became the top scorer of the league once more, scoring 34 goals in 1975–76 and 28 in 1976–77. During his tenure on Reims, Bianchi showed his scoring touch scoring 107 goals in four seasons and being the top scorer in the French championship in 1974, 1976 and 1977 marking 30, 34 and 28 goals, respectively.Delbrayelle, Dominique
"France – Topscorers"
''RSSSF'', 17 July 2012. Retrieved on 9 May 2013. In 1977, he joined

in which Bianchi was again the top scorer of the league in two seasons spent in the club. Because of the club's financial problems, Bianchi was transferred to Paris St. Germain in 1977.Carlos Bianchi - Fiche de stats du joueur de football
/ref> In his first season with the Parisian club, Bianchi scored 37 goals in 38 matches, being also named best player of the season. The next season, 1978–79, Bianchi was the top scorer again with 27 goals. Despite those outstanding individual performances, PSG did not achieve any title, on the contrary their performance was very poor, finishing eleventh. and 13th in the last seasons. Because of that, Bianchi chose to move to a more competitive team. In the 1979–80 season, he played for

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, without success, scoring only eight goals. Bianchi returned to his home country in 1980 to play for Vélez Sarsfield where he became top scorer in the

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

with 15 goals. He would return to Stade de Reims where he would retire in 1984. Bianchi is the top scorer in the history of Vélez Sarsfield with 206 goals and ninth overall in Argentine football. He is also the 9th top scorer in the history of the French League with his 179 goals. After his retirement, Bianchi is recognized by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

as Argentina's top scorer in the history of first division tournaments of the world, scoring a total of 385 goals (206 in Argentina and 179 in France) surpassing Alfredo Di Stefano (377 goals) and Delio Onnis (352 goals, 53 in Argentina and 299 in France), a great merit not recognized by many due to his coaching career greatly overshadowing his days as a player. Carlos Bianchi is the 8th top scorer in the history of first-division football. He also earned 14 caps for

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, scoring 7 goals, during the period from 1970 to 1972.

Return to Vélez Sarsfield

At the end of the French season, Bianchi returned to his home country to play for Vélez Sarsfield, becoming the top scorer of 1981 Nacional with 15 goals. His last season in Argentina was in the 1984 Metropolitano, where he played his last match with Vélez Sarsfield, a 1–2 defeat to Boca Juniors at José Amalfitani Stadium on July 1, 1984. Bianchi remains as all-time top scorer for Vélez Sarsfield, with 206 goals in 324 matches with the team.

Retirement in France

Bianchi returned to French football in 1984–85 to play for Reims, his first team in Europe which was playing in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

(Second Division). Nevertheless the club did not make a good performance, finishing 12th. of Group A. Bianchi was not the temible scorer of his glory days, either. He only scored eight goals in the season and then retired from football. Nevertheless, Bianchi would stay in Reims after becoming manager of the team and being in charge during the 1985–86 season.

Managerial career

France

Bianchi made his debut as manager in March 1985 with

(where he had previously retired as player), being three seasons in the Second Division without achieving promotion to the Ligue 1, despite the team reached the semi-finals of

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

twice. After his tenure with Reims, Bianchi was hired by

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

in playoff with an aggregate score of 7–3. After Bianchi left Nice, he returned to Paris to coach Paris FC, where he stayed two years (1991–92).

Argentina

Bianchi returned to Argentina in December 1992 to coach Vélez Sarsfield, the club where he had debuted, in replacement of Eduardo Luján Manera. His first match on the bench was on February 21, 1993, when Vélez beat Deportivo Español 2–0 with two goals by Omar Asad in the first round of the 1993 Clausura season. Vélez won that championship with 27 points in 19 matches played, achieving their 2nd. league title. As Argentine champion, Vélez qualified to 1994 Copa Libertadores, where the team shared group with strong and experienced rivals such as

and Brazilian Cruzeiro, and Palmeiras. Nevertheless Vélez placed 1st. in the zone therefore the squad qualified to the next stage. Vélez would then eliminate Defensor, Minervén, and

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlantic ...

to face defending champions

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

in the finals. After both teams won one game each by the same score (10), a penalty shootout was run to decide a champion. After José Luis Chilavert stopped one shot and Roberto Pompei scored, Vélez Sarsfield won the series achieving their first Copa Libertadores trophy. The next step was the 1994 Intercontinental Cup, where Bianchi led Vélez Sarsfield to win their second international title after beating

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

2–0. Vélez would go on to in two more league titles with Bianchi, establishing the most successful period in the club's history. After a brief passage in Italian club Roma, Bianchi returned to Argentina to coach

. In two stints in the club, Bianchi won four league titles, three

titles and two Intercontinental Cup titles, becoming the club's most successful manager.

Career statistics

Bianchi is regarded as one of the best forwards of all time, because of his impressive record of goals scored both in France and Argentina. He is the all-time topscorer of Vélez Sarsfield with 206 goals. He is also one of the all-time top scorers of French Division 1 with 179 goals scored.

Club

Manager

Honours

Player

Vélez Sarsfield * Primera División: 1968 Nacional Stade de Reims *

runner-up: 1976-77

Manager

Vélez Sarsfield * Primera División: 1993 Clausura, 1995 Apertura, 1996 Clausura *

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana () was an international association football, football competition endorsed by CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACAF ...

Boca Juniors * Primera División: 1998 Apertura, 1999 Clausura, 2000 Apertura, 2003 Apertura * Copa Libertadores:

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Individual

* Argentine Primera División Top scorer:

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

* French Division 1 Top Scorer: 1973–74, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1978–79 * French Division 1 Foreign Player of the Year: 1974 * South American Coach of the Year: 1994, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003 * IFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2000, 2003

References

External links

Carlos Bianchi and the art of winning the Copa Libertadores
at thesefootballtimes.co

at

.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bianchi, Carlos 1949 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent AS Roma managers Serie A managers Expatriate football managers in Italy Atlético Madrid managers Expatriate football managers in Spain La Liga managers Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Stade de Reims players Paris Saint-Germain FC players RC Strasbourg Alsace players Men's association football forwards Argentine football managers Argentine expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in France Stade de Reims managers OGC Nice managers Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield managers Boca Juniors managers Footballers from Buenos Aires Illustrious Citizens of Buenos Aires Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Argentine Primera División players Expatriate men's footballers in France Argentine expatriate sportspeople in France Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Copa Libertadores–winning managers 20th-century Argentine sportsmen