Rubén Oscar Pagnanini (born 31 January 1949 in

San Nicolás de los Arroyos San Nicolás de los Arroyos (usually shortened to ''San Nicolás'') is a city in the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the western shore of the Paraná River, from Rosario. It has about 133,000 ...

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

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 who played as a defender for the Argentina national team. He played for

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

Club Atlético Independiente () is an Argentine professional sports club, which has its headquarters and stadium in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. The club is best known for its Association football, football team, which plays in the Argentine Primera Divi ...

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 ...

and

Minnesota Kicks The Minnesota Kicks was a professional soccer team that played at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, from 1976 to 1981. The team was a member of the now defunct North American Soccer League (1968–84), No ...

. Playing for Estudiantes, he won the

1969 Copa Libertadores The 1969 Copa Libertadores de América was the 10th edition of the Copa Libertadores, a football competition contested between the top clubs of the CONMEBOL federation. Estudiantes de la Plata won the competition defeating Nacional 4–0 on po ...

and

1970 Copa Libertadores The 1970 Copa Libertadores de América was the 11th edition of CONMEBOL's top Association football club tournament. Estudiantes de La Plata successfully defended their title for the second straight year by defeating Peñarol in the finals. Teams ...

. His greatest achievements at the local club level were winning the

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

championships of 1977 and 1978 with Independiente. Pagnanini was part of the 1978 Argentina national football team that won that year's World Cup, though he did not play in any match during that tournament. His nickname was ''el gato'' ('the cat'). In 2007, he worked as the coach of

La Emilia La Emilia is a small town in the San Nicolás Partido of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Sport The town is home to Club Social y Deportivo La Emilia football club; the team play in the Torneo Argentino B Torneo Argentino B was one of two le ...

, a club playing in the

Torneo Argentino B Torneo Argentino B was one of two leagues that form the fourth level of the Argentine football league system, made up of 100+ teams playing within eight regional zones across Argentina. The other league at level four wasand still isthe Primera C ...

league (4th division).

Honours

Club

; Estudiantes *

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 ...

: 1968, 1969, 1970 *

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 ...

: 1968 * Intercontinental Cup:

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

; Independiente *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

1977,

1978

International

;

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 ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pagnanini, Ruben 1949 births Living people FIFA World Cup–winning players Copa Libertadores–winning players Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers Argentine football managers Footballers from San Nicolás de los Arroyos 1978 FIFA World Cup players Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers Minnesota Kicks players Argentine Primera División players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Men's association football defenders Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States 20th-century Argentine sportsmen