Héctor "Bambino" Veira (born May 29, 1946) is a former

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. Since retiring as a player he has gone on to win several major titles as a manager.

Playing career

Veira started his professional career in 1963 with San Lorenzo, in 1964 he became the topscorer in the Argentina Primera División at the age of only 18. In 1967 Veira received his first call up to the

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team (), nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' (), represents Argentina in men's international Association football, football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino ( ...

and in 1968 he helped San Lorenzo to win the

Metropolitano championship The Metropolitano championship ("Campeonato Metropolitano") was an Argentine football tournament which existed between 1967 and 1984. The Metropolitano formed one half of the Primera División, taking place in the first half of the year, while th ...

without losing a game, to become the first team in the professional era of Argentine football to become unbeaten champions. In 1970 Veira joined

Huracán Huracán (; ; , "one legged"), often referred to as ''U Kʼux Kaj'', the "Heart of Sky", is a Kʼicheʼ Maya god of wind, storm, fire and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. He also caused th ...

, the club he had supported as a boy. He then had a spell with Laguna in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

before returning to San Lorenzo in 1973. In his later career he played for

Club Atlético Banfield Club Atlético Banfield is an Argentine sports club based in the Banfield, Buenos Aires, Banfield city of Greater Buenos Aires. It was founded on 21 January 1896, by the British–origin inhabitants of that city (mostly English people, English, ...

in Argentina,

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Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in C ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, CSD Comunicaciones in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

Managerial career

Veira started his managerial career with San Lorenzo in 1980, he then had a short stint in charge of Vélez Sársfield before joining River Plate in 1985. Veira had a productive time in charge of River Plate, he led them to the 1985-1986 championship. In 1986, he led them to their first ever victory in the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

and the Copa Intercontinental later that year. In 1987 Veira returned to San Lorenzo where he stayed until 1990. He then returned to the club again in 1992, leading them to the 1995 Clausura championship. In 1996, he became the manager of Boca Juniors, staying with the club until 1998 when he took over as the coach of the Bolivia national team. In 2000, he became manager of

Club Atlético Lanús Club Atlético Lanús () is an Argentina, Argentine sports club based in Lanús, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1915, the club's main sports are association football, football and basketball. In both sports, Lanús plays in Arge ...

and in 2002 he took charge of

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 ...

. After retiring as manager of

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

after only one month in charge Veira returned to San Lorenzo for a fourth time in 2004, by the end of this period, he had been manager of San Lorenzo for 371 games, making him San Lorenzo's longest serving manager in their history.

Scandal

In 1987 Veira was accused of raping a 13-year-old boy, Sebastián Candelmo. In 1991, he was found guilty of the offence and sentenced to six years in prison. In 1992, he was given a conditional discharge and returned to work as manager of San Lorenzo. Veira has always maintained his innocence, and claimed that the boy was instructed by his mother to make the allegations for financial gains.

Titles as a player

Titles as a manager

Personality

He is famous for having a series of bon mots and a very distinctive sense of humour. Some of his classic phrases are: *"¿Qué me parece el hotel? Un poco antiguo... Yo creo que acá mataron a Drácula, nene". ("What do I think of the hotel? It's a little old... I think Dracula was killed here, kid.") *"Pusimos un micro en el arco y la metieron por la ventanilla". ("We put a bus in the goal and they put the ball through the window.") *"¿Viste qué calor estuvo haciendo en Buenos Aires? Terrible, hasta Tarzán se insoló..." ("Did you feel how hot it was in Buenos Aires? Terrible, even Tarzan got heatstroke...") *"Pibe, yo tengo un laburo más difícil que el plomero del Titanic". ("Kid, my job is harder than that of the Titanic's plumber.") *"¿Viste lo que es ese pibe? Va, viene... Va, viene... Parece una autopista". ("Did you see that kid? He goes, he comes... He goes, he comes... He looks like a highway.") *"¡Pibe, vos no podés ir al ataque ni con ametralladora!" (Kid, you can't go in attack even with a machine gun!) *"¡Es una cosa de locos!" ("It's a madmen thing!") *"Me gusta tanto la noche que al día le pondría un toldo". ("I enjoy the night so much that I would pull a blind on the day.") *"Para mí el fútbol es... BELLEEEEZZZA". ("To me football is... BEEEEAUUUTY.") *" Iván de Pineda es una torrrrmenta de facha". ("Iván de Pineda is a cool-looking storrrrm.") *"Qué dupla esa, este (Ruggeri) y el 'Tano' Gutiérrez, ay mamita, criminal, criminal... Era Vietnam". ("They were a great duo, him (Ruggeri) and 'Tano' Gutiérrez, oh baby, criminal, criminal... It was Vietnam.") *"¡Estos pibes tiran paredes en un campo minado!" ("These kids make wall passes even on a minefield!") *"Esta zona de la cancha de San Lorenzo es terrible, acá lo asaltaron a Rambo". ("This neighbourhood where San Lorenzo stadium is located, is terrible, Rambo was mugged here.") *"Entiendo la situación del club, pero yo pedí un cuatro y me trajeron un pomelo..." ("I understand the club's situation, but I asked for a Right Defender (Cuatro is 4 and also a beverage made of grapefruit) and they brought me a grapefruit...") *"¿La tecnología? Es una cosa de locos. Apretás un botón y estás en la NBA, apretás otro y estás en Moscú". ("Technology? It's a madmen thing, you press a button and you are in the NBA, you press another one and you are in Moscow.")

References

External links