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Argentina’s Jewish hero

Updated: 04/Jul/2006 12:10

Jose Nestor Pekerman

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BERLIN (EJP)---Jose Nestor Pekerman is a popular man in Argentina.

The reputation of Argentina’s national football trainer, the great-grandson of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, remains at an all-time high, even though Argentina is no longer in the running for a World Cup title since its 1:1 defeat to Germany, last week, following penalties.

Up until its loss to Germany, Pekerman’s team was the undisputed favourite at this year’s FIFA World Cup.

Oliver Lueck, editor of Germany’s football magazine “RUND” (Round), interviewed Pekerman for the weekly Juedische Allgemeine (JAZ) newspaper.

Lueck calls Pekerman, “one of the cleverest tacticians of world football”.

Taxi driver

At 28, Pekerman left professional football due to an irreparable knee injury. Today, the 56-year-old talks nostalgically about the jobs he had to take on in order to get by.

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Everyone wants to have known him at the time he was struggling to make ends meet. There is hardly an Argentinian who claims not to have been driven by Pekerman when worked as a taxi driver.

Pekerman believes that his success lies in his strong character that allowed him to confront difficult situations. As a taxi driver, he took his own routes and disregarded any advice from passengers.

“My views are mine, regardless of whether someone else likes them or not. I am not afraid to make tough decisions. Perhaps because of my life experience, I know who I am and this has enabled me to become national trainer. Because of this, I have no plans to change my ways,” Pekerman said.

Pekerman’s decisions are often publicly criticised. Getting attacked is perhaps part of the game of the second most important man in Argentina, after the president. When criticised from all sides for his choice of players Pekerman sticks to his beliefs.

He refuses to even respond to detractors. “I have no time for that. And how is that supposed to help my team, anyway?” he says.

Social commitment

The “Famous Unknown,” as Pekerman is called by most Argentineians, began his training career as coach of his country’s national under 20s team. He brought his young players to three Under 20 World Cup titles in 1995, 1997 and 2001.

“He succeeded in doing this with a team that despite its reputation of playing unfairly, consistently won the ‘fairness trophy’ too,” Lueck wrote.

Before taking over Argentina’s football team, turned down three offers to lead his country’s national team. He preferred to concentrate on future players that his country would need in order to win future championships.

He told Lueck: “It takes approximately ten years to make men out of the young players.” Once he felt that the training concept of the under 20s was complete, he accepted the offer to head his national team last year.

This devotion to future generations impressed Germany’s national team trainer and football legend, Juergen Klinsmann, who particularly admires “Pekerman’s social commitment”.