18 Facts About Ossie Ardiles

1.

Osvaldo Cesar Ardiles was born on 3 August 1952, and often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentina national team.

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2.

Competitive and skilled midfielder, Ardiles became a cult hero in England, along with Glenn Hoddle and compatriot Ricardo Villa, as a player for Tottenham Hotspur.

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3.

Ossie Ardiles was born in Cordoba, and played for Instituto de Cordoba from a young age.

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4.

Ossie Ardiles was named as El Grafico's best player of the interior in 1974, and abandoned his law degree studies in order to play professional football.

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5.

Ossie Ardiles played a big part in another FA Cup triumph the following year, but did not play in the final because it had already been arranged with the Spurs management that he would leave early to join up with Argentina's 1982 World Cup squad.

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6.

Ossie Ardiles then played for Blackburn Rovers, Queens Park Rangers and Swindon Town, before being appointed as manager of Swindon Town in July 1989.

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7.

Ossie Ardiles played part of the 1989 American Soccer League season with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

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8.

Ossie Ardiles was called up to the Argentina senior team by manager Cesar Luis Menotti in 1975.

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9.

Ossie Ardiles was a member of the World Cup winning squad in 1978.

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10.

In July 1989, Ossie Ardiles moved into football management with second division Swindon Town when Lou Macari resigned to join West Ham in July 1989.

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11.

Ossie Ardiles wowed fans by replacing the long ball style which had been so successful with a new "Samba style", which saw the Town playing attacking football.

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12.

Ten months after he had joined, Ossie Ardiles led Swindon to their highest ever league position, finishing fourth in the second division.

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13.

Tottenham finished 15th in the Premiership and despite the expensive acquisition of Jurgen Klinsmann and Ilie Dumitrescu in the 1994 close season, Ossie Ardiles was sacked in October 1994 with Tottenham languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League.

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14.

Ossie Ardiles joined Paraguayan club Cerro Porteno in May 2008 but was sacked in August of the same year after a string of poor results and was replaced by Pedro Troglio.

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15.

Ossie Ardiles was enlisted by RTE Sport for their squad of pundits ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

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16.

Ossie Ardiles returned to RTE's team for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

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17.

Ossie Ardiles played Carlos Rey in the 1981 World War II film Escape to Victory.

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18.

Ossie Ardiles sustained minor injuries in the accident, and required more than 20 stitches in his head.

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