BIRTHDAY - 16 March: Carlos Bilardo (Football)

FOOTBALL - Carlos Bilardo is 73 years old today. ‘El Narigón’ (‘The Big Nose’) is famous for coaching Argentina in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, which the Albiceleste won behind a formidable performance by captain and star player Diego Maradona. Bilardo was also part of Maradona’s staff when he led Argentina at the 2010 World Cup, in which Bilardo managed to draw attention to himself with a quote we will not repeat here. However, for the not so faint at heart

At the 2010 World Cup, Bilardo (then 71) intimated that whoever scored Argentina’s winning goal in the final was quote- ‘at liberty to sodomise him’. Unquote. To which Carlos Tévez replied: “I will be quite happy to allow one of my teammates to score that goal.” With Argentina’s 4-0 quarterfinal defeat against Germany, the unsavoury proposition fortunately became a moot point.

Shares birthday with: Erik Estrada, Jimmy Nail, Flavor Flav