Gabriel Calderón

Gabriel Humberto Calderón (born 7 February 1960) is an Argentinian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of UAE Pro League side, Khor Fakkan Club.

For the Spanish football manager, see Gabriel Calderón (football manager, born 1986).

Gabriel Calderón
Calderón managing in 2019
Personal information
Full name Gabriel Humberto Calderón
Date of birth (1960-02-07) 7 February 1960
Place of birth Rawson, Argentina
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Khor Fakkan
Youth career
1974–1976 El Porvenir
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1976–1977 El Porvenir 25 (3)
1977–1981 Racing Club 113 (16)
1978 → Lanús (loan) 24 (0)
1981–1983 Independiente 74 (15)
1983–1987 Real Betis 131 (38)
1987–1990 Paris Saint-Germain 102 (20)
1990–1992 Sion 47 (17)
1992–1993 Caen 36 (2)
1993–1994 Lausanne Sports 31 (5)
Total 583 (116)
International career
1977–1981 Argentina U21 20 (5)
1981–1990 Argentina 23 (1)
Managerial career
1997–2000 Stade Malherbe Caen
2003 Lausanne Sport
2004–2005 Saudi Arabia
2007–2008 Oman
2008–2010 Al-Ittihad
2010–2011 Al-Hilal
2011–2012 Baniyas
2012–2013 Bahrain
2014 Real Betis
2014–2016 Al-Wasl
2017 Qatar SC
2019–2020 Persepolis
2022 Khor Fakkan
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Calderón played in several teams including Argentine Racing Club de Avellaneda and Club Atlético Independiente, Spanish Real Betis and French Paris Saint-Germain. He was part of the Argentina Under-20 team that won the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship. After his retirement, he managed Caen, Lausanne Sports and several teams in the Middle East including the Saudi Arabia national team, Omani national team, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, Baniyas, Bahrain national team, Al-Wasl, Qatar SC and Khor Fakkan Club.

Playing career
Calderón playing for Independiente in 1983

Calderón was born on 7 February 1960 in Rawson, Chubut Province. He began his football career in with Club El Porvenir B team in 1974 and was promoted to the original squad in 1976.

He was promoted to the El Porvenir original team in 1976 and was transferred to the Racing Club de Avellaneda in the next year after good showing and played three seasons and a half season at Club Atlético Lanús as loan.

Then, he played for Club Atlético Independiente for two seasons before moving to La Liga side, Real Betis. He played for Betis 131 times and scored 38 goals for them. In 1987, he moved to Ligue 1 Paris Saint-Germain and played for the club three seasons. He was one of the key players of PSG in his second season at the club. In 1990, he joined to FC Sion but returned to France to play for Stade Malherbe Caen in 1992. He moved back to Switzerland next year and finished his football career in FC Lausanne-Sport in 1994 at the age of 34.

International career

Calderón played for the Argentina Under-20 team and won the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship. In 1981, he was invited to the national team by coach César Luis Menotti. He made his debut in a match against Brazil and scored his only international goal in a match against Denmark. He was part of the national team in 1982 FIFA World Cup held in Spain and in the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy and played along with Diego Maradona. He was key player of the national team in 1990 FIFA World Cup where Argentina reached the final match of the tournament. After the tournament, he retired from international career at the age of 30 after collecting 23 caps and scoring 1 goal for the Argentina national team.

International goals
DateVenueOpponentResultCompetitionGoals
1987-04-02Buenos Aires, Argentina Denmark1–0Friendly1

Coaching career

Early years

Calderón began his managerial career in 1997 as head coach of Stade Malherbe Caen where he had played between 1992 and 1993. He was appointed as head coach of Lausanne Sports, another former club in 2003 but resigned after just five weeks due to poor results.

Saudi Arabia national team

Calderón then took over as the coach for the Saudi Arabia national football team at the end of 2004, and successfully guided the Saudi team to qualification for the Football World Cup 2006 in Germany by beating Uzbekistan 3–0 in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia was the only team in that qualification that lost no matches.[1] Calderón said "Qualifying to the World Cup is the dream of every coach and I'm more than satisfied with our campaign in the qualifiers." "I'm very happy with the qualification since that was the goal I was aiming at when I first arrived in the Kingdom," he added.

However, in December 2005, Calderón was fired by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation as they were dissatisfied by the team's poor showing in the 2005 West Asian Games after a defeat to Iraq, and was replaced by Marcos Paqueta.

Oman national team
Calderón in a pre-match conference in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup

On 9 April 2007, Calderón signed as the coach of the Oman national football team and led the team at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. Oman began the tournament with a 1–1 draw with Australia but was defeated 0–2 against co-host Thailand, then made a 0–0 draw with the tournament's winner, Iraq and was eliminated in the Group Stage. On 30 June 2008, he resigned as head coach of Oman national team in order to become the new head coach of Saudi Al-Ittihad.

Al-Ittihad

On 30 June 2008, he returned to Saudi Arabia to become new Al-Ittihad head coach. In his first season at Al-Ittihad, he eventually won the Saudi Premier League by beating Al-Hilal 2–1 in the final match of the league played at King Fahad Stadium in Riyadh and finished the season in first place, five points ahead of runner-up, Al-Hilal.[2] However, there was no success in the league, as Al-Ittihad were eliminated from the 2008 ACL and lost the final game of King Cup of Champions to Al-Shabab. In the second and final season at Al-Ittihad, he won King Cup of Champions which beat Al-Hilal in the final match. He also led the club to the final match of 2009 AFC Champions League, win the Group A and defeated compatriot Al-Shabab 2–1 in the Round of 16. Then, beat Uzbek Pakhtakor 5–1 aggregate and Nagoya Grampus 8–3 to reach to the final. They faced Pohang Steelers in Tokyo, Japan but was beaten by Korean side 1–2 and finished the tournament as runner-up. Two months after that, Calderón was sacked on 13 January 2010.[3] He was linked to Argentina national team to succeed Diego Maradona in 2010.

Al-Hilal

On 5 November 2010, Calderón was announced as the new head coach of Al-Hilal. Calderón would succeed Eric Gerets who departed to take charge of the Moroccan national team. He led the club to become 2010–11 league champions without any loss, and to the Crown Prince Cup title. He also led the club to the knockout stage of 2011 ACL but was defeated by his former club, Al-Ittihad in the Round of 16. Despite his achievements at the club, he was dismissed at the end of the season and on 19 July 2011 following the club's 3–0 defeat to league rivals Al Ittihad in the first leg of 2011 King Cup of Champions.

Baniyas

On 23 November 2011, he was appointed as UAE Pro-League side Baniyas SC's head coach. Baniyas was in 11th place before his arrival and was at the bottom of the league along with Sharjah but he saved the club from relegation and finished the league in 9th place. He also led the club to the final match of the UAE President's Cup but was defeated by Al-Jazira. Under his management, Baniyas reached the knockout stage of the AFC Champions League for the first time in the club's history but was defeated by Al-Hilal, Calderón's former side in the Round of 16. After this defeat, he announced that he would not renew his contract with Baniyas. He officially left the club on 30 May 2012. He was linked to Persepolis in June 2012 but that job went to Manuel José.

Bahrain national team

On 28 October 2012, Calderón was announced as head coach of Bahrain national football team to succeed Peter Taylor after the latter's dismissal.[4] His first taste as manager came on 9 December 2012 in match with Yemen in 2012 West Asian Football Federation Championship. He was sacked on 13 August 2013.

Real Betis

On 19 January 2014, he was appointed as head coach of La Liga side Real Betis, replacing Juan Carlos Garrido.[5] He separated after the end of season.

Al-Wasl

In October 2014, Calderón was named the head coach of Al-Wasl.[6] In May 2016, he left the club by mutual consent.

Qatar SC

On 5 July 2017, he signed a two-year contract with Qatar SC.[7] he was sacked on 22 November 2017.

Persepolis
Calderón with Persepolis in 2019

On 1 July 2019, Calderón was appointed manager of reigning Persian Gulf Pro League and Iranian Hazfi Cup title-holders Persepolis, a post that was left vacant by the departure of Branko Ivanković, who left to manage Al-Ahli Saudi FC.[8] On 12 January 2020, he resigned from his position as Persepolis coach due to financial troubles.[9]

Managerial statistics
As of 11 March 2022
Team From To Record
GWDLGFGA+/-Win %
SM Caen July 1997 May 2000 118 43 39 36 158 131 +27 036.44
Lausanne Sports July 2003 December 2003 15 5 5 5 23 22 +1 033.33
Saudi Arabia November 2004 December 2005 20 9 4 7 26 22 +4 045.00
Oman April 2007 June 2008 28 13 11 4 34 27 +7 046.43
Al-Ittihad June 2008 January 2010 63 44 11 8 153 76 +77 069.84
Al-Hilal December 2010 July 2011 37 25 9 3 73 31 +42 067.57
Baniyas November 2011 May 2012 24 11 7 6 40 33 +7 045.83
Bahrain October 2012 August 2013 21 9 8 4 22 16 +6 042.86
Real Betis January 2014 May 2014 21 6 3 12 23 37 −14 028.57
Al-Wasl October 2014 May 2016 19 7 6 6 32 31 +1 036.84
Qatar SC September 2017 November 2017 9 1 1 7 8 21 −13 011.11
Persepolis July 2019 January 2020
 19 14 1 4 24 7 +17 073.68
Khor Fakkan February 2022 May 2022 10 2 1 7 15 21 −6 020.00
Total 404 189 106 109 636 476 +160 046.78

Honours

As a player
Real Betis
Paris Saint-Germain
FC Sion
Argentina U-20
Argentina

As a manager
Saudi Arabia
Al-Ittihad
Al-Hilal

References
  1. "بیوگرافی کالدرون سرمربی احتمالی پرسپولیس". خبرگزاری موج (in Persian). Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  2. Mohmaed, Zaid. "Saudi Arabia 2008/09". The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  3. "Saudi side Ittihad sack Calderon". FourFourTwo. 13 January 2010.
  4. "Gabriel Calderon is proud of Bahrain players but victory is vital". The National. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  5. "Real Betis fire Juan Carlos Garrido for Gabriel Humberto Calderón". The Guardian. Press Association. 19 January 2014.
  6. "Gabriel Calderon replaces Jorginho as Al Wasl coach". gulfnews.com. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  7. "پایگاه خبری جماران". پایگاه خبری جماران (in Persian). Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  8. "Gabriel Calderon officially named Persepolis coach". Tehran Times. 1 July 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  9. "La situación del fútbol en Irán e Irak: "Juegan contigo"". AS.com (in Spanish). 15 January 2020.
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