Julio César Baldivieso Rico (born 2 December 1971) is a Bolivian

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 ...

coach and former player who played as an

attacking 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 ...

. Baldivieso was a midfielder who played for the Bolivia national team at the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

and several

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

Football career

Club

Nicknamed "El Emperador", Baldivieso began his career in his native Cochabamba playing for

Wilstermann Club Deportivo Jorge Wilstermann, known simply as Wilstermann, is a Bolivian football club from the city of Cochabamba, founded on 24 November 1949 by a group of workers of Lloyd Aereo Boliviano. It is named after Bolivian aviator Jorge Wilste ...

in 1987. His exquisite technique didn't go unnoticed and he signed with Bolivia's biggest football club, Bolívar in 1992. Thanks in part to the successful run with the national team, which qualified to the

, he awoke the interest of several clubs outside Bolivia. After the World Cup, he transferred to Argentine team

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

from Rosario, where he played until the winter of 97. Subsequently, he joined

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club

Yokohama Marinos is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club competes in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Having won the J-League title four tim ...

for a couple of years. As his career progressed, Baldivieso also exposed his talent in diverse leagues around the world; such is the case of

Barcelona Sporting Club Barcelona Sporting Club () is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. Internationally known as Barcelona de Ecuador, in Ecuador it is simply referred as Barcelona, El Idolo (BSC) or Barce. T ...

and Deportivo Quevedo in Ecuador,

Cobreloa Club de Deportes Cobreloa S.A.D.P. (), commonly referred to as Cobreloa, is a Chilean football professional club based in Calama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. That competes in the Primera B. The club's home ground is the Estadio Zorros d ...

in Chile,

Al-Nasr Al Nassr Football Club ( ar, نادي النصر السعودي; '' Naṣr'' meaning ''Victory'') is a Saudi Arabian football club based in Riyadh. Formed in 1955, the club plays its home games at the Mrsool Park. Their home colours are yellow ...

in Saudi Arabia,

Al-Wakra Al-Wakrah Sport Club ( ar, نادي الوكرة الرياضي) is a Qatari professional sports club based in Al Wakrah. Their professional football team competes in the Qatar Stars League and play their home games at the Al-Haribo Stadiu ...

in Qatar and

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in Venezuela. Towards the end of his career he returned to Bolivia and played for

The Strongest Club The Strongest is a Bolivian professional football club based in La Paz, that currently plays in the Bolivian Primera División. Founded in 1908, their team colours are yellow and black. Although they have a home ground, Estadio Rafael M ...

, and later made his final run with

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on and off the field as he also managed the team. Throughout his career, Baldivieso also played in 46

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

games altogether for three different teams and scored 11 goals.

International

Baldivieso made his debut for

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

on 14 June 1991 in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

, losing 1–0 against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River in the eastern Tropical Lowlands of Bolivia ...

. He obtained a total number of 85 caps during his career, scoring fifteen goals. He played his last international match on 12 October 2005: a World Cup Qualifier against

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

Tacna Tacna is a city in southern Peru and the regional capital of the Tacna Region. A very commercially active city, it is located only north of the border with Arica y Parinacota Region from Chile, inland from the Pacific Ocean and in the valley of ...

Managerial

During his last season as a player Baldivieso transitioned into coaching as he took over the manager position at the club. In November 2008 he won the Clausura tournament with

in a very disputed 3-game final series against

Blooming Bloom or blooming may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Bloom, one or more flowers on a flowering plant * Algal bloom, a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system * Jellyfish bloom, a collective n ...

. On 19 July 2009, still being Aurora's manager, he made debut his own 12-year-old son, called Mauricio Baldivieso. At the end of the match he strongly criticized the

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and one opponent who made his son cry after a hard tackle. He quit Aurora 5 days later, after the club's board told him to pick between his job and his son. He also withdrew his son from the team. On 20 May 2011 Baldivieso returned to Aurora for his second spell. Later in his career he also managed

Real Potosí Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010 ...

Nacional Potosí Nacional Potosí known as river de bolivia, is a Bolivian football and basketball team from Potosí. The football team currently plays in the Bolivian Primera División. Founded on 8 April 1942, it plays its home games at Estadio Víctor Agustí ...

, San José,

and

Universitario de Sucre Club Deportivo Universitario San Francisco Xavier is a professional football team based in Sucre, Bolivia that competes in the Bolivian Primera División. The club has two titles in its history and also has three international appearances in c ...

. On 28 August 2015 Baldivieso was officially presented as the manager for the Bolivia national team. In late 2017, he became the first Bolivian to coach a foreign national football team from outside the Americas, when he was appointed as coach of Palestine. He was released in April 2018 due to a series of controversies related between him and Saudi officials. On 31 January 2019, Baldivieso was appointed as the manager of

Club Always Ready Club Always Ready, better known as Always Ready, is a Bolivian football club from La Paz which plays its home games in nearby El Alto. Due to the jerseys the team is also known as ''Banda Roja'', or the red band. History Club Always Ready was fo ...

. On 23 September 2019, Baldi returned to

as a sporting advisor because he couldn't appear as a coach in the official matches, after he already led

in the current

2019 Bolivian Primera División season The 2019 Bolivian Primera División season, known as the 2019 Copa Tigo season for sponsorship reasons, was the 42nd season of Bolivia's top-flight football league and the second season under División de Fútbol Profesional management. San Jos� ...

and, according to the rules, a head coach cannot lead to two clubs in the same contest. He announced in December 2019, that he would leave the club because it wasn't the same for him to lead from the stands. However, later on the same month, it was confirmed that Francisco Argüello, who had been Baldi's assistant coach during the last 4–5 years, had taken charge of Aurora and that Baldi would continue at the club as his assistant, now where he couldn't lead the team officially.

Statistics career

National team

International goals

Managerial statistics

Personal

His son Mauricio Baldivieso is the youngest player to have played in a professional football match.BBC Sport: Bolivian boy sets football record
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References

External links