Roberto Jorge D'Alessandro di Ninno (born 28 July 1949) is an

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 ...

retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He spent most of his career with

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

in Spain, appearing in nine

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

seasons and more than 300 official games with the club. He subsequently embarked in a managerial career in the same country, coaching several teams.

Playing career

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, D'Alessandro spent six years in his country with

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

, being part of the squads that won four

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

championships. In June 1974 the team played

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and black ...

in a friendly, and the Spaniards were so impressed they decided to purchase him, having to (successfully) deal with the

Argentine Football Association The Argentine Football Association (, ; AFA) is the governing body of football in Argentina based in Buenos Aires. It organises the main divisions of Argentine football league system, Argentine league system (from Argentine Primera División, Pri ...

first; players under 26 were prohibited from moving abroad, and he was 25. D'Alessandro stayed in goal for the

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

side over ten seasons, nine of those in

. In a match against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

during the 1976–77 season, his collision with Dani resulted in a tear in his

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

, even though he finished the game. After having the organ removed, he resumed his football activity against all medical advice, still putting on several solid campaigns. D'Alessandro retired in June 1984 at the age of 35 following Salamanca's relegation, having made 242 appearances in the Spanish top flight (307 in all competitions), a club record.D'Alessandro recibe 45 años después el Trofeo Zamora a mejor portero de la Liga (D'Alessandro receives Zamora Trophy for the best League goalkeeper 45 years later)
; Marca, 16 December 2019 (in Spanish)

Coaching career

D'Alessandro started coaching at his last club, being in charge of both the youth and reserve teams. His first three professional seasons were spent in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

, with

UE Figueres Unió Esportiva Figueres is a Spanish football team based in Figueres, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1919 and refounded in 2007 it plays in the , holding home matches at ''Estadi Municipal de Vilatenim'', with a seating cap ...

(two years) and

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

. In late March 1994, D'Alessandro became

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

's sixth manager of the season, being appointed as the side, led by elusive chairman

Jesús Gil Gregorio Jesús Gil y Gil (12 March 1933 – 14 May 2004) was a Spanish businessman and politician. He served as Mayor of Marbella between 1991 and 2002, and presided for a 16-year tenure as president of the football club Atlético de Madrid ...

, was placed in the relegation zone; the ''Colchoneros'' eventually finished in 12th position, and his contract was not renewed. He returned to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

for a second spell in November, taking the place of

Francisco Maturana Francisco Antonio Maturana García, also known as ''Pacho'' Maturana (born February 15, 1949) is a Colombian ex-football player and football manager. Under his management, Atletico Nacional was the first team of the nation to win the Copa Libe ...

and being himself dismissed after 13 games. D'Alessandro briefly worked with Salamanca in 1995–96, suffering top-division relegation. He then signed for

CP Mérida Club Polideportivo Mérida was a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Mérida, Spain, Mérida, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Having played twice in La Liga (1995–96 La Liga, 1995–96 and 1997–98 La Li ...

of the second tier, being promoted in his first yearEl Mérida regresa a la máxima categoría (Mérida return to the top tier)
Mundo Deportivo, 2 June 1997 (in Spanish) and relegated in his second. He continued his career at that level, with three teams including another spell with his main one. In April 2010, after several years working as a

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

in both radio and television, D'Alessandro returned to Salamanca for his third stint as a manager, eventually avoiding relegation from the second division. On 31 October 2011 he joined another club in the same league,

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

, replacing the fired

Juan Carlos Oliva Juan Carlos Oliva Fornos (born 4 January 1965) is a Spanish football manager. Football career Born in Mequinenza, Province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Oliva started coaching at an early age, his beginnings being in amateur football. In 2005 he arrived ...

as they ranked last. His first match was a 5–0 home win over

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

neighbours

CE Sabadell FC Centre d'Esports Sabadell Futbol Club, S.A.D. () is a historical List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Sabadell ( Catalonia) Founded in 1903, its first men's team plays in the . Its first CE Sabadell (women), women's tea ...

; however, after not being able to prevent the final drop even though the results improved overall, he resigned.El Nàstic baja a Segunda B (Nàstic relegated to ''Segunda B'')

Sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

, 19 May 2012 (in Spanish)

Honours

;San Lorenzo *

: 1972 Metropolitano, 1972 Nacional *

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

Final Canceled:

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

; Salamanca *

runner-up: 1981–82

Individual

Ricardo Zamora Trophy The Zamora Trophy () is a football award, established by Spanish newspaper '' Marca'' in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" ratio.Similar to goals against average in ice hockey or earned run average in b ...

: 1974–75, 1976–77

Manager

Mérida *

: 1996–97

References

External links

* * *
Nàstic Grana profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalessandro, Jorge 1949 births Living people 20th-century Argentine sportsmen Argentine men's footballers Footballers from Buenos Aires Men's association football goalkeepers Argentine Primera División players San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers La Liga players Segunda División players UD Salamanca players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers UE Figueres managers Real Betis managers Atlético Madrid managers UD Salamanca managers Elche CF managers Rayo Vallecano managers Gimnàstic de Tarragona managers SD Huesca managers Argentine expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Spain