Antonio Rattín (born May 16, 1937
in Tigre, Buenos Aires Province) is a former Argentine football
player, best known as a Boca Juniors midfielder, and because of
an incident in a match at the 1966 World Cup.
A Boca fan since childhood, Rattín joined their youth team, and
debuted professionally on September 9, 1956 against Boca's major
rival River Plate. Replacing injured Eliseo Mouriño, he had a
good game which Boca won 2-1. Slowly he became the team's steady
number 5, and won the hearts of the fans with his sober and
solid playing abilities.
In his fourteen-year professional career, Rattín played only for
Boca Juniors, winning the Argentine championship in 1962, 1964
and 1965, and the Nacional in 1969.
With the Argentina national football team Antonio Rattín played
thirty-two times, including the 1962 World Cup, and as the
captain in the 1966 World Cup that took place in England.
It was in the quarter-final match against the host team that
Rattín was sent off by the German referee Rudolf Kreitlein for "violence
of the tongue", despite the referee speaking no Spanish. Rattín
was so incensed with the decision, believing the referee to be
biased in favour of England,that he initially refused to leave.
He eventually had to be escorted from the field by two police
officers. This incident, and others surrounding the same game,
arguably started the long-lasting rivalry between both national
teams.
After a total of 357 matches and 28 goals with Boca juniors,
Rattín retired from professional football in 1970. He worked as
coach of the youth teams of Boca Juniors, and coached the first
division teams of Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata in 1977 and
1979, and Boca Juniors in 1980.
Argentine writer Alfredo Luis Di Salvo published in 2000 the
book Antonio Ubaldo Rattin - El Caudillo (ISBN 987-43-1624-1).
He remains as one of the greatest idols of Boca Juniors. |
