Alfio Basile, coach of the last Argentine team that won the Copa América, once in Chile-1991 and another in Ecuador-1993, was hospitalized this Wednesday in Buenos Aires after having contracted covid-19, reported the Racing club, of which he was player and coach.
“You already know about difficult matches. Force Coco, we are with you!”, The Academy spread on social networks, with whose white and blue jersey he won the Argentine championship in 1966, the Copa Libertadores-1967 and the Intercontinental-1967. He also directed the Racing champion of the South American Super Cup in 1988.
Basile, 77, suffers from pneumonia caused by the pandemic coronavirus. He had been immunized with the first dose of one of the vaccines applied by the South American country.
He was a player for the National Team and for Huracán, a club with which he won the local championship in 1973. He was a central defender of strong lineage and a great scorer of header goals.
In his extensive career as DT, he formed a powerful team for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, but Diego Maradona’s doping case brought down the squad, eliminated in the round of 16.
“I am made ‘bag’ (affected), like all my friends, suffering this tremendous pandemic,” he had recently declared from a home confinement to take care of the contagion and with health problems that came over the years.
As coach of the Albiceleste he also won the Confederations Cup-1992 and the Artemio Franchi Cup-1993.
In the technical direction he was also champion with Boca Juniors, twice in local tournaments and three times in international cups.
Basile was also coach of Nacional de Uruguay, Atlético de Madrid and América de México.
Under his command, the Argentine team won its last title in Ecuador-1993, a 28-year negative streak that it now seeks to cut in the Copa América Brazil-2021.
dm/ol
–
