Club America has announced that it has hired the 44-year-old Argentine professional football manager and former player, a former Real Madridmanager, to fill the team’s vacant manager position.
The Liga MX giants fired Miguel Herrera on December 21 after the club crashed out of the Liga MX playoffs against bitter rival Chivas and then fell to LAFC in the semifinal of the CONCACAF Champions League on December 18.
Solari managed Real Madrid for a short spell between November 2018 and March 2019, before being sacked and replaced by Zinedine Zidane.
At club level, Solari played for River Plate, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, among others. He also made 11 appearances for the Argentina national team.
Solari will oversee his first match for Club America against Atletico San Luis when the Liga MX Clausura begins on January 9.
Diego Maradonamay be heading back to the world of soccer…
The 58-year-old Argentine legend, the focus of an acclaimed documentary, is closing in on a return to management at Argentine first division club Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata.
Maradona met with the club this week and the deal is “80 percent” agreed, Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morlatells ESPN FC, with a definitive meeting set to take place on Thursday.
Maradona had admitted on Tuesday that he’d like to coach in his homeland, but on Wednesday denied that a deal had been signed with Gimnasia, or that he’d met with anyone at the club.
“I don’t think that toying with the hopes of the fans is ok,” wrote Maradona. “I still haven’t met with anyone.”
But Morla posted a video later on Wednesday of Maradona talking directly to Gimnasia fans: “I want to make clear that I’ve very recently undergone an operation. I did have contact with people from Gimnasia, but I’ve not spoken to anyone recently
“For them to have considered me … due to my achievements far away or because they are Maradona fans is a very beautiful thing, really touching and it fills my heart.”
Maradona then made a point of getting up and walking around to prove he is fit, after a right knee operation in late July.
“They say that I can’t move. Look! Look!” stressed Maradona in the video. “Am I ready to coach or not? All of you Lobo [Gimnasia] fans, I hold you here [points to heart].”
Maradona joined Mexican second division club Dorados de Sinaloaone year ago and led the team to consecutive Ascenso MXfinals in his two seasons, losing both to newly promoted Atletico San Luis— owned by Atletico Madrid— after extra time in the second leg.
But Maradona left in mid-June in order to undergo a knee operation, following indications he was happy in Mexico and wanted to continue, with Dorados also content with how things had gone.
Gimnasia is dead last in the Argentine league after five rounds of matches in the new season, having lost its last four games.
Maradona had invited his Argentina teammate Gabriel Batistutato be part of the coaching staff at Gimnasia and take training sessions, but the former striker declined the invitation due to a scheduled operation on Sept. 17 in Switzerland.
“I want to thank Diego Maradona for the offer I’d been waiting for for so long,” wrote Batistuta on Twitter. “I wish him all the best!”
