Jorge Valdano Biography

Jorge Valdano, born 4 October 1955 in Las Parejas, is an Argentine former football player and coach who worked for many European teams. In 1974 Valdano started his professional career with

, winning the 1974 Metropolitan Championship. One year after winning the national title with Newell's, Jorge transferred to the small

, then in the second division.

Four seasons later he was transferred to Real Zaragoza of the first division and finally, after five seasons there, he was signed by the biggest club in Spain: Real Madrid. While playing at Madrid, he was one of the club's leading players at the time and scored in the two UEFA Cup finals won by the team - in 1985 and 1986. He eventually abandoned his professional career in 1987 at the age of 31 due to hepatitis.

Valdano played twenty-three matches for the Argentinean national team, scoring seven goals, of which four in the 1986 World Cup where he was champion, including a goal in the final match. Prior to this, Jorge had taken part in the 1975 Copa América and the 1982 World Cup, missing most of the tournament after being injured in the second match against Hungary.

Immediately after his retirement, Valdano went on to become a commentator and coach of Real Madrid's youth team, spending just one season there. He then moved to Tenerife, where he saved the team from relegation and the following season they managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Thanks to his good performance, he was hired by Real Madrid and won the Spanish title right from the start.

All You Need to Know About Jorge Valdano Biography

He later signed with Valencia, but remained only one season, when he became the sporting director of Real Madrid, remaining until June 2005 and coming back four years later with the same position and also as presidential adviser.

Jorge Valdano Information

Now that we know the Argentine footballer much better, in this section of

Jorge Valdano biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Jorge Valdano nationality

to let you know him even better.

Jorge Valdano Bio

• Full Name: Jorge Alberto Francisco Valdano Castellanos

• Nickname: The Philosopher of Football

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Jorge Valdano Physical Stats

• Weight: 80 Kg

• Height: 1.83 m

• Eye Color: Hazel

• Hair Color: Brown

Jorge Valdano Football Information

• Position: Striker

• Jersey Number: 11

• Professional Debut: 1973

Jorge Valdano Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 4 October 1955

• Birth Place: Las Parejas, Argentina

• Zodiac Sign: Libra

• Nationality: Argentine

Now stay tuned to this section of

Jorge Valdano biography

as we want to share some info about

Jorge Valdano childhood

.

Jorge Valdano Early Life

As a teenager, Valdano was scouted by the Newells Old Boys at one of their tournaments. He made his debut for the main team when he was under 17 years old. From an early age, he was noted for his ability to strike well with both feet, play with the head, and his ability to take any position in attack and, if necessary, in midfield. Moreover, the striker was not prone to individualism and was distinguished by a team game. He helped the club to their first league title in 1974.

Valdano moved to Europe in 1975, where he started playing for Second Division club Alaves in Spain. Despite the fact that the Argentine quickly enough became the team's top scorer and fan favourite, Alaves did not manage to earn promotion in four years. Consequently, in 1979, when he was 24 years old, Valdano joined Primera Division side

.

The team did not qualify for high positions in the league, but each year successfully fought for a place in the elite of Spanish football. The 1982/83 season was the most successful for the club as well as for the Argentine, in which Zaragoza finished sixth and Jorge was among the top five goalscorers in the league with 16 goals.

A bright game allowed Valdano to transfer to

in 1984. He became the team's top scorer after his first season in the club. When Hugo Sanchez was brought on as Mexico's newest member of the Real Madrid squad, a bright attacking trio was formed which, in addition to Valdano and Sanchez, also included Emilio Butragueño.

This amazing attacking trio allowed the team in 1986 to win the first league title in five years, and a year later - successfully defended it and in total, Real Madrid won five consecutive championships. Furthermore, Real Madrid managed to win two UEFA Cups, with Valdano scoring in the final of each. Despite his success, Jorge Valdano decided to end his playing career in 1987 because of hepatitis.

Now stay tuned to this section of Jorge Valdano biography as we want to share some info about his national team career.

Argentina National Team

Jorge Valdano has played for his country on a total of 23 occasions and scored 7 goals, and was part of Argentina’s team in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. A massive centre-forward with a height of 1.88 metres, Valdano's history with the

is one that could have turned out badly. In 1982, he played only two short matches before being injured.

That was a bad memory for him and for

, who missed out on the tournament. At 26 years of age, he believed he had missed his chance. He was wrong. Four years later, 'El Filósofo' would become one of the main assets of the Abiceleste, who were crowned champions on Mexican soil.

With his countryman "El Pibe de Oro" as support, Jorge Valdano would score four goals in this 12th edition of the World Cup. A double against

and a goal against Bulgaria helped Carlos Bilardo's team through the group stage, before scoring an important last goal in the final against West Germany, led by the Kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer.

Argentina led 1-0 after a first-half Jose Luis Brown counter-attack, and their centre-forward then doubled the lead after a wonderful shift by team-mate Hector Henrique. With Harald Schumacher's goal slightly off-centre on the left, Valdano sent the German keeper through with an unstoppable right foot.

However, the Germans came back to score in the space of seven minutes in the last quarter of the game - first through Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and then Rudi Voller - and finally surrendered the lead three minutes later when Jorge Burruchaga from Nantes scored the decisive goal.

Though he did not have much of an impact in the knockout stage, with Argentina heavily reliant on the talent of Diego, the Merengue woke up at the right time to put his country on top of the world. His international career was short with 23 appearances and 7 goals, but he was one of the most effective players in the history of Argentinian football.

Valdano's relatively small number of games for the national team can be explained by the high level of competition and the fact that he has spent most of his career in Europe, frequently missing out on team friendlies and matches of little tournament importance.

Now stay tuned to this section of

Jorge Valdano biography

as we want to share some info about his career as a football coach.

Jorge Valdano Profile

While a footballer, Valdano completed a coaching course and therefore began to coach Real Madrid's youth team shortly after finishing his playing career.

Tenerife

He started his own coaching career in 1991, taking charge of the

club. In the closing rounds of Spanish league games in the seasons, 1991/92 and 1992/93 led by Valdano Tenerife defeated the league leader Real Madrid twice, causing the title to go to Barcelona both times.

After the 1992/93 season, the Canary Islands club secured fifth place in the Spanish championship and for the first time qualified to play in the European competitions. This success has also earned Valdano an offer to become the head coach of Real Madrid.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid CF won the first league title in five years under Valdano, stopping Barcelona's dominance. However, they finished 6th in the league the following season and then Valdano was dismissed. The Argentine added Fernando Redondo to Real Madrid's squad and Raul and Guti made their debuts. Later Raul named his first child, Jorge, after his first coach at Madrid.

Valencia

The final team in Valdano's coaching career was

, where he finished 10th in the standings in 1997. The Argentinian then decided not to return to coaching. Now stay tuned to this section of Jorge Valdano biography as we want to share some info about his career as a sporting director.

Sporting Director of Real Madrid

Jorge Valdano was appointed sporting director of Real Madrid in 2000 during the Perez era. He was involved in the Galacticos era, and later helped bring in young players such as Robinho, Sergio Ramos, Carlos Diogo...

He returned in 2009 with Florentino Pérez as sporting director again and later became general manager when José Mourinho took over as coach. He took part in the second version of the Galacticos with the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Raúl Albiol and Mesut Özil among others.

Jorge Valdano was removed from his post, as reported in the Spanish press, after a meeting of the Real Madrid board of directors on 25 May 2011, announced by Florentino Pérez. Valdano, the club's general manager and right-hand man to the president, paid for his stormy relationship with José Mourinho. "I want to stress how painful Jorge Valdano's departure is for me. We have come a long way together," Perez told a press conference.

"Mourinho did not demand anything. He demanded more autonomy, in line with what is done in

. Whatever we do, we do it because it's a good decision that doesn't take into account personal feelings," said Perez.

Now stay tuned to this section of Jorge Valdano biography as we want to share some info about his coaching style.

Style of Play

Being a forward during his playing days, after starting his career as a coach, Jorge Valdano had adopted a very attacking style of play with his teams, with 4-4-2 diamond with to centre forwards being his main playing system, especially while he was coaching Real Madrid between 1994 and 1996. Due to this attacking style of play, his Real Madrid side had scored many goals in their games, with one notable match including the 5-0 win over Barcelona on 7 January 1995.

Reception

Jorge Valdano is known as one of the greatest Argentine strikers in the history of the game. And rightly so. He played in Diego Maradona's legendary Argentina team that won the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and had a great contribution to his country’s road to success. However, after becoming a coach, he failed to achieve as much success as he was a player.

Jorge Valdano outside Football

The book La pasión según Valdano (Passion according to Valdano) was released in 2006 by the Argentinean journalist Ariel Scher, where he compiled conversations he had with Valdano, discussing the coach's origins, the relationship between sport, business and politics and Valdano also gave his opinion on current football players such as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Ibrahimović, among others.

He also published a memorable chapter in 2006 in which he compared Guardiola and Maradona and their leadership styles in the book Administración Inteligente (Intelligent Administration) published by the Ministry of Public Administration.

Valdano previously worked as a football commentator for several media outlets such as the El País newspaper, the Marca newspaper, Cadena SER, Telemadrid, Televisión Azteca (Mexico) and La Sexta (Spain).

He was invited in 1998 by journalist and television director José Ramón Fernández to be part of the team of Los Protagonistas, TV Azteca's leading sports programme, to cover the 1998 World Cup with his commentary alongside the likes of César Luis Menotti and Emilio Butragueño. He also collaborated again for Los Protagonistas in the World Cups of Germany 2006, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018.

Since retiring as a coach of football, he has written five books including Sueños de fútbol (Soccer dreams), Cuentos de Fútbol (Soccer stories), Cuentos de fútbol II (Soccer stories ll), Los cuadernos de Valdano (Valdano's notebooks) and El miedo escénico y otras hierbas (Stage fright and other herbs).

Jorge Valdano Personal Life

In this section of Jorge Valdano biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Jorge Valdano life story

and

Jorge Valdano religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

Jorge Valdano has been married to his wife Marta for more than 40 years. The couple has a son and a daughter together.

The son of this marriage is named after his father, Jorge Valdano, and is the creator of one of the most famous Spanish TV series of the last decades: "Los Serrano". Jorge was the scriptwriter for the 2014 documentary on the life of Leo Messi, on which he worked alongside his father.

However, Valdano and Marta also have a daughter, Naiara, who studied Art History at the Complutense University of Madrid and has a Master's degree in Art Business and Cultural Business Management.

Philanthropy

He has been part of different charity projects during his career and we have seen Jorge Valdano take part in some charity football matches from time to time.

Legal Issues

At the time of writing this article of Jorge Valdano biography, there are no reports of any legal issues or disputes regarding him in the English or Spanish media.

Jorge Valdano Career Statistics

In this section of Jorge Valdano biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

Since 1973 that he started his career in the Argentine club Newell's Old Boys and until the day that he decided to retire from playing football while he was a Real Madrid player, Jorge Valdano played a total of 459 matches and scored 160 goals. If it wasn’t for his illness which made him retire early, he could have still played for many years as he was a very talented striker.

International

Between 1975 and 1990, Jorge Valdano played a total of 23 matches for the Argentina national team and scored 7 goals, one of them being scored in the 1986 World Cup final match.

Managerial

In total, he has managed Tenerife, Real Madrid and Valencia in a total of 187 matches with 81 wins, 49 draws and 57 defeats, with his teams scoring 302 goals and conceding 236.

Jorge Valdano Honors

As a footballer, Valdano has won many awards and trophies, including the Argentine Primera División,

, UEFA Cup, Copa de la Liga and the FIFA World Cup with Argentina.

It was in the 1994-95 season that he was able to win the La Liga as head coach of the Real Madrid team. He has also won the La Liga Foreign Player of the Year in the 1985-86 season.

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