Gallego shows the Midas touch
Toluca coach Americo Gallego has won won six titles with four different teams.
(AFP) Victor Straffon
(FIFA.com) 11 Aug 2006
To the casual observer, it sometimes appears that footballers go to absurd lengths to give their team an all-important edge. The wearing of 'lucky' underwear, taking a statuette of the Virgin Mary to the ground, always stepping onto the pitch with a certain foot first; all of these and more are perfectly acceptable in the hothouse atmosphere that is the beautiful game.
However, recent years have seen an even more powerful lucky charm emerge for those teams seeking silverware: Argentine-born tactician Americo Gallego, the man who has won titles with every team he has ever coached. Currently reaping the benefit of the coach's remarkable skills are Mexican outfit Toluca, who Gallego led to Champions Cup success on 30 July.
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While El Tolo himself is another high-profile devotee to the world of superstition, the gifted strategist puts his success squarely down to hard work and dedication. From taking his first steps on the coaching ladder as assistant to El Gran Capitán Daniel Passarella, right up to his current all-conquering spell in the Mexican game, this proud holder of a FIFA World Cup-winner's medal from 1978 has striven to make a name for himself: "Hard work is the only secret to my success."
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Despite plotting success with Toluca, the 51-year-old believes that becoming Argentina coach is his ultimate destiny.
(AFP)
Christian Palma
A born winner
The 51-year-old has won six titles with four different teams thus far, a record that is the envy of many of his managerial counterparts. Lest we forget, Gallego also had a spell with the Argentine national team coaching staff, working as Passarella's assistant at the 1998 FIFA World Cup France, where the Albicelestes reached the quarter-finals.
Life has not always been a bed of roses for El Tolo, whose highly individual approach has attracted criticism on more than one occasion. His managerial career began in 1990, working as Passarella's assistant at Buenos Aires' giants River Plate. Four years later, his boss's appointment as senior Argentina coach paved the way for Gallego to take River's top job. "Now you'll see just how good El Tolo is," predicted El Gran Capitán. Gallego certainly did not disappoint, leading Los Millonarios to their first-ever unbeaten league title success.
Following on from his FIFA World Cup experience over on French soil, Gallego picked up another title with River in 2000, before going on to repeat the feat at Independiente (2002) and Newell's Old Boys (2004). His achievements did not go unnoticed, and before long the gifted tactician earned a move to the big-money world of Mexican football.
The God Tolo
The city of Toluca, close to Mexico's Federal District, owes its name to the Cerro del Toloche (Toloche Hill) - a variant on the word Tolocan, meaning "Where the God Tolo is found". Even though the coach himself places little store in the coincidence, he could well be enjoying God-like status if he continues to bring titles back to the city.
That said, the early months of Gallego's reign saw him become the subject of intense scrutiny due to his lack of experience in Mexican football and a perceived predilection for a defensive style of play. Once again, the former River Plate coach answered his critics in the best way possible: by getting results. "There were a lot of people who didn't have any faith in us. For seven months I had a very difficult time from both the fans and the press. But we did it: we awoke the sleeping giant that was Toluca," he explains, looking back with the satisfied air of a man who has done his job well.
Gallego led Toluca to the 2005 Apertura title before defeating Pachuca to clinch the aforementioned Champions Cup, all of which saw him awarded the Golden Ball for the season's finest coach. But the talented Argentine is not finished yet: "This is a continuous process and we'll be going all out to win the Clausura. Was it a blow not to be offered the Argentine national team job? No, I'm still young and it will be mine one day, I'm certain of that." With a track record like his, you would not bet against it.
Toluca > all of em. 
