DOHA. With 66 years of age and eleven at the head of Tigres de México, Ricardo Ferretti has become a ‘rare bird’ in the current situation on the bench, but the feat of leading the ‘Felinos’ to the final of the Club World Cup attests that experience and continuity can be a value in modern football.
February 09, 2021 – 3:12 pm
In a world where the permanence of a coach on the bench sometimes depends on the next result of his team, and in which short-term projects and the impatience of the managers often curtail the work of the coaches, the Brazilian Ferretti has established with a firm base in the San Nicolás de los Garza club, where it is an institution.
“I like to do what I do. This sport is one of the most beautiful in the world and I am very grateful to belong to it. I feel very grateful to have, from the moment I started as a player until today, 53 years doing the same thing, “confessed Ferretti, a former player of Botafogo and Vasco da Gama, and of several ‘Aztec’ clubs, in statements made to the FIFA.
A glorious decade
Tigres’ quality leap in the last decade has been cemented on his figure, which could be culminated on Thursday with the title in the Club World Cup, in whose final Bayern Munich awaits them.
The trajectory of ‘Tuca’ Ferretti, born 66 years ago in Rio de Janeiro, and thus nicknamed, according to himself, because ‘Tuca’ was the first word he uttered when he was a child, reflects constant progress.
If his first two experiences as a Tigres coach, between 2000 and 2003, and a few months in 2006, ended without pain or glory, since his return in 2010 the ‘Felino’ club went from being a team that fought not to be relegated to doing so to be crowned with the world scepter.
Since then he has not stopped opening the Tigres windows. Ferretti won the Mexican league five times, three times the Champions Trophy, and the 2014 Mexico Cup with the Monterrey team, in addition to the 2020 Concacaf Champions League, after three lost finals in the highest competition from North, Central America and the Caribbean.
“For ten years the team has shown great capacity and in these three finals that we lost, as always, there are circumstances that happen, we even lost one on penalties when we had the full advantage. But the fact of having won takes away this unnecessary pressure that we had and now we are going to try to play a great role in the Club World Cup ”, Ferretti predicted correctly before the start of the World Cup tournament.
On the bench since 1991
The ‘Tuca’ is already the second coach in history with the longest time at the head of a Mexican team, behind Javier de la Torre (13 years managing Guadalajara).
“For me it is not tedious or boring, because I do what I love, because football is my passion and the day I do not feel this 100%, I will step aside,” says Ferretti, a coach who has not passed a single season without training since his inception on the bench in 1991.
Pumas, Guadalajara, Toluca, Morelia, and the Mexico national team have enjoyed the knowledge of an impetuous coach during the game and sometimes also in front of journalists, but that has led Tigres to fight to avoid relegation to be 90 minutes behind. make it the best team in the world.
