1. Marcelo Gallardo was regarded for his vision, technique, class, dribbling and especially his defence-splitting passing.
37 Facts About Marcelo Gallardo
1. 2.
Marcelo Gallardo began his career in the club's youth divisions, and made his debut in the Argentine Primera Division at age 17 in 1993.
3.
Marcelo Gallardo represented Argentina in two FIFA World Cups, although his performance was affected by injuries in both.
4.
Marcelo Gallardo helped Nacional de Montevideo defend their championship the following season before transferring to River Plate.
5.
River Plate won local championships under Marcelo Gallardo and returned to the international scene, where they had not won a tournament from 1997 to 2014.
6.
Marcelo Gallardo won a series of national tournaments with the team during the next few seasons, and became a starting midfielder by 1996.
7.
Marcelo Gallardo had played 109 league games with the club and scored 17 goals.
8.
Marcelo Gallardo signed a five-year contract with Monaco in 1999 for.
9.
Marcelo Gallardo scored 23 goals in 126 matches in four years with Monaco, winning the Coupe de la Ligue during his final season.
10.
Marcelo Gallardo returned to River Plate in 2004 and was named squad captain.
11.
Amid institutional and performance problems in River Plate and a bad streak since his return to the club, Marcelo Gallardo began considering offers to return to the French league.
12.
On 29 January 2008, Marcelo Gallardo was presented as the newest member of DC United.
13.
Marcelo Gallardo had the third-largest salary in MLS that year, behind English midfielder David Beckham of the LA Galaxy and Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire.
14.
Marcelo Gallardo scored his first league goal for United on 5 April 2008 against Toronto FC.
15.
Marcelo Gallardo underwent surgery for a sports hernia on 17 and 19 July, which sidelined him for most of the 2008 season.
16.
In 2010, after a final short spell in River Plate as a player, Marcelo Gallardo signed with Nacional de Montevideo in the Uruguayan league.
17.
Marcelo Gallardo retired as a player and was hired a few days later to manage Nacional, his first managerial position.
18.
Marcelo Gallardo was considered for the Argentina national under-20 football team, but could not participate in the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship in Qatar because Argentina national team coach Daniel Passarella wanted to include him on his squad.
19.
Marcelo Gallardo was on the Argentina squad for the 1995 and 1997 Copa America, reaching the quarter-finals both times.
20.
In 2010, before retiring as a player, Marcelo Gallardo obtained his coaching certificate from Jose Farias de Vicente Lopez Technical School 62 in Vicente Lopez, Buenos Aires.
21.
Marcelo Gallardo's assistants included Matias Biscay, Pablo Rodriguez and Marcelo Tulbovitz.
22.
Marcelo Gallardo later described managing Nacional as an "accelerated course", coaching players with whom he had played.
23.
Marcelo Gallardo was the first River Plate player to win an international title as a player and a coach.
24.
Marcelo Gallardo dedicated the victory to his mother, who had died shortly before the second game against Boca Juniors.
25.
Marcelo Gallardo was named the fifth-best football coach worldwide in 2015 by the IFFHS.
26.
Marcelo Gallardo's coaching was praised by the press, and he was called one of the best River Plate managers of all time.
27.
Marcelo Gallardo is the most successful coach at the international level in club history to date, with seven international titles: two Copa Libertadores, the 2014 Copa Sudamericana, three Recopa Sudamericanas and the 2015 Suruga Bank Championship.
28.
Marcelo Gallardo is considered the greatest coach in River Plate history.
29.
Marcelo Gallardo was named the best 2019 football coach in the Americas by the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais, and the second-best in the world by the football website Club World Ranking.
30.
The squad eventually went on to win the championship and Marcelo Gallardo equaled Angel Labruna's record of 22 titles as both a player and a coach for the team.
31.
On 18 November 2023, Marcelo Gallardo became the manager of Al-Ittihad on a one-and-a-half-year contract after having taken a short break from coaching.
32.
Marcelo Gallardo was noted for his accuracy with direct free kicks and his ball delivery from corners and set pieces.
33.
Marcelo Gallardo's playing style was compared to Diego Maradona in his youth.
34.
Marcelo Gallardo has four sons from his marriage to his high-school sweetheart, Geraldine La Rosa; one is River Plate footballer Nahuel Marcelo Gallardo.
35.
Marcelo Gallardo had little interest in football during his early years, and preferred flying kites.
36.
Marcelo Gallardo said that he was a San Lorenzo fan before turning to River Plate, influenced by his mother's family.
37.
Marcelo Gallardo's teammates started calling him that during the early 1990s, when he was one of the squad's youngest members.