Carlos Salvador Bilardothe coach who led Argentina to conquest of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, and was runner-up in the tournament in Italia’90, received this Thursday the Conmebol Honorary Coaching License in recognition of his career. “I am very happy to have given the Honorary Coaching License of @CONMEBOL to my dear friend, Dr. Carlos Bilardo! One of the many recognitions that this unparalleled master world champion deserves,” Conmebol president Alejandro Domínguez wrote in the entity’s Twitter account. The message is accompanied by a photograph of Bilardo, sitting and surrounded by his former directors in the Argentine team; Ricardo Giusti, Sergio Batista, Oscar Ruggeri and Jorge Burruchaga. “Thanks to his boys, also champions, Nery Pumpido, Ricardo, Sergio, Oscar and Jorge who graciously brought him the card,” Domínguez said in the same Twitter thread.
Bilardo, 83, was a figure as a footballer for Estudiantes de la Plata that in the 1960s reached the three-time Copa Libertadores championship, as well as the 1968 Intercontinental Club Cup at the expense of Manchester United at Old Trafford. The Argentine coach and gynecologist led the Albiceleste to the title of the World Cup in Mexico’86 along with the late Diego Armando Maradona and other figures from the Albiceleste and four years later, in Italia’90, they were runners-upon both occasions against Germany.
The recognition is given a week before the premiere, this Thursday, February 24, of the documentary series of four 45-minute episodes of the HBOMax platform “Bilardo: the Soccer Doctor”, about Bilardo’s life. Bilardo has had few public appearances in recent times due to a neurodegenerative disease that he suffers from.
