Luis Oscar Fulloné Arce, better known as Oscar Fulloné (4 April 1939 – 22 May 2017) was an Argentine

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and player. He played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Independiente Medellín Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as Independiente Medellín or DIM, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at Estadio Atanasio Girardo ...

and

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

before moving to England to play for

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

in 1967. Known as Oscar Arce during his time in England he remained in the country following his retirement from playing and was a coach for both

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. He became manager of Swiss side

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

in 1980 before going on to become one of the most successful African club managers.

Playing career

Fulloné started his career with Estudiantes in Argentina,

in Colombia and

in Spain. In 1968, he joined

of England alongside his younger brother, Hector Fulloné Arce. It was reported at the time that "Oscar Arce is a wizard of ball control who was so determined to play for Aston Willa that he completed a two-year residential qualification in this country". Together they played in

The Central League The Central League is a football league for reserve teams, primarily from the English Football League. For sponsorship purposes, it was branded as the Final Third Development League until the 2015/16 season. The league was formed in 1911 and ...

for the reserve team during the 1968–69 season. Neither brother played for the first team. In October 1969, Fulloné underwent successful surgery to have cartilage removed from his left leg. Fulloné was released from his contract and Hector returned to Argentina.

Coaching and managerial career

After retiring as a player, Fulloné became a football coach. He was appointed as youth team manager at

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

in September 1977, reportedly turning down the opportunity to manage

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

at the

1977 CONCACAF Championship The 1977 CONCACAF Championship, the seventh edition of the CONCACAF Championship, was held in Mexico from 8 to 23 October. Mexico, as the host nation, easily secured a third title and a place in Argentina '78 since the tournament also served as ...

. He was on the staff at

between 1978 and 1979 when the club tried to sign Argentine international

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

but ultimately ended up signing

Alejandro Sabella Alejandro Javier Sabella (; 5 November 19548 December 2020) was an Argentine football player and manager. Born in Buenos Aires, he began his playing career with River Plate in his home country before moving to England in 1978 to play for Sheffi ...

instead. Fulloné was also involved in the transfer of Argentine

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

winners

Ricardo Villa Ricardo Julio Villa (; born 18 August 1952), more commonly known as Ricky Villa, is an Argentine football coach and former professional midfielder. He was famous for his time playing football from 1970 to 1989. Career Villa was born in Roque ...

and

Osvaldo Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), 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. He now runs his ...

to Spurs. Fulloné's managerial career began in Switzerland where he served as manager of Swiss side

between 1980 and 1981. Since then he spent most of his career managing African teams, winning league titles in Ivory Coast, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. He won the African Champions League twice in consecutive years with different clubs in ASEC and Raja Casablanca. He would go on to win the African Cup Winners' Cup with Wydad Casablanca in 2002. He was nominated by CAF for Africa-based coach of the year but lost out to

Bruno Metsu Bruno Jean Cornil Metsu (28 January 1954 – 15 October 2013) was a French footballer and football manager. During his senior playing career from 1973 to 1987, he played for seven different clubs in his native France. From 1988 until his death, ...

. Fulloné also had a brief spell as manager of the Burkina Faso national team between September 2001 and January 2002 but left the position ahead of the

2002 African Cup of Nations The 2002 African Cup of Nations was the 23rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa (Confederation of African Football, CAF). It was hosted by Mali. Just like in 2000 African Cup of Nations, 2000, th ...

due to the illness of his wife who was hospitalised in Paris, France.

Death

He died in May 2017, at the age of 78, in Morocco.

References

External links