Juan Ramón Rocha
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Juan Ramón Rocha | ||
Date of birth | 8 May 1954 | ||
Place of birth | Santo Tomé, Argentina | ||
Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | Thesprotos (manager) | ||
Youth career | |||
1960–1970 | Avanti Santo Tome Academy | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1971–1977 | Newell's Old Boys | 135 | (26) |
1977-1978 | Atlético Junior | 15 | (3) |
1978–1979 | Boca Juniors | 26 | (3) |
1979–1989 | Panathinaikos | 227 | (13) |
Total | 403 | (45) | |
International career | |||
1973–1977 | Argentina | 3[1] | (0) |
Managerial career | |||
1989–1990 |
Paniliakos | ||
1990–1991 |
Ilisiakos | ||
1991–1992 | Kalamata | ||
1994–1996 | Panathinaikos | ||
1997–1999 | Aris | ||
1999 | Panathinaikos | ||
2001–2003 |
Skoda Xanthi | ||
2006–2007 |
Ilisiakos | ||
2007–2008 | Olympiakos Nicosia | ||
2008–2012 | Panathinaikos U20 | ||
2012–2013 | Panathinaikos | ||
2017–2018 | Ruch Chorzów | ||
2019– | Thesprotos | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of August 28, 2007 |
Juan Ramón Rocha (born 8 May 1954) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Greek Super League 2 club Thesprotos.
Playing career
Born in Santo Tomé,
Nicknamed The Indian, Rocha was a skillful player, with vision and remarkable sportsmanship. He is considered by many one of the greatest players in the team's history. Rocha was first signed for Panathinaikos under the name Boublis with Greek papers; the subsequent discovery of record falsifications and ensuing scandal almost landed Rocha in jail and Panathinaikos in the second division. These allegations were later dismissed and both Panathinaikos and Rocha were acquitted. This was one of the many cases of "hellenization" of foreign players for many Greek soccer clubs.
Managerial career
After retirement he started coaching, first Paniliakos in where he was coach-player at the Fourth Division,
On March 12, 1994, Ivica Osim was removed from the technical leadership of Panathinaikos 6 games before the end of the 1993-94 season and Rocha was asked to replace him.
After Rocha's arrival, Panathinaikos recorded 8 wins, winning all of their remaining games, including the cup final against AEK, which was marred by riots and conflict between fans, on penalties. In the first 3 games with Rocha, Panathinaikos scored wide wins against Iraklis (3-0), Larissa (5-0) and Doxa (8-0) earning the trust of Panathinaikos who decided to keep him in place. Rocha made significant changes to Osim's game plan, putting his own stamp on the reform. He made Juan José Borrelli, who was under question and possible transfer during Osim's reign, a vital member of the starting lineup as well as G.S. Georgiadis, G.H. Georgiades, Doni, Kapouranis to whom he gave different roles as was the case with the placement of Apostolakis as a defensive half.
Before the start of the next season, Panathinaikos won the Super Cup in August 1994 by defeating AEK Athens 3-0. At the end of the 1994-95 season they also won a double. In the championship they finished first with a 16-point difference from 2nd place Olympiacos, scoring 83 goals while they won 5 games scoring 5 goals and 2 games scoring 6. To reach the final of the Greek Cup they had to beat Olympiacos 2-3 at Karaiskaki. In the cup final, he won the trophy by defeating AEK Athens 1-0. Having won 3-0 during the championship he completed 4 victories against AEK in one year (20/4/1994 - 19/4/1995).
In 1995-96, he repeated his success as a coach in reaching the Champions League last four by guiding Panathinaikos to the semi-final against Ajax. Having overcome the obstacles of Heyduk, Nantes, Porto, Alborg MK and Legia, Panathinaikos on 3 April 1996 won 1-0 in Amsterdam against AFK Ajax, who had not been defeated in a European match since 16 March 1994. However, they failed to qualify for the final in the replay. They also won the Greek championship. By defeating Olympiacos at home and away, he became the third Panathinaikos coach to do so after Kinsler and Gorski, while in the following years only Victor Munioth in 2007 became the winner of both league derbies.
Rocha was removed from Panathinaikos on 13 October 1996, having earlier been eliminated from the Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifiers by Rosenborg MK and Legia respectively. He also managed Olympiakos Nicosia in Cyprus.
He then became member of the scouting team of Panathinaikos, mostly searching players in Argentina and South America. After Jesualdo Ferreira resigned at 14 November 2012, Rocha once more became the manager of Panathinaikos.
On 11 September 2017 he was introduced as the coach of Ruch Chorzów.
In the 2019 close season, he became manager of
The team wouldn't play official games for quite some time as due to the second wave of COVID-19 in Greece the 2020-21 Football League season was postponed in October 2020 and the teams weren't allowed to participate in the
Wielding a squad with an average player age of 22.2 years old, Rocha led Thesprotos to a scrupulous
The problems continued into the
Right before the return, tragedy struck to the club, as on 1 March 2023, Iordanis Adamakis, a 22 year old acquisition of the club in the 2022 summer transfer window and player of the club up until that point, was tragically killed in the Tempi train crash. Rocha, along with everyone in the club and in local community, mourned his loss, and Rocha was devastated by the loss of a player with whom he had an excellent relationship with him, even speaking up on social media and national television about the level of the tragedy to both him and everybody involved. "I wish I could hug his family, I really do" was the final comment of Rocha on television and people all over Greece praised him for his loyalty to his players and his affection towards them.
In spite of the heavy blow on the team's morale after Adamakis' tragic death, the teams returned to action Rocha and his players fought bravely for survival, but relegation was confirmed on 4 May 2023 after a 2-3 win at Diagoras Rodou. The team wrapped up the season with 0-5 and 5-1 losses to Almopos Arideas and Iraklis and finished with 20 points in 28 games (one folded due to Apollon Larissa being expelled from the league) and only one win at home (the 6-0 win against A. Larissa) and to add insult to injury, Thesprotos were deducted 3 points near the end of the season due to their financial difficulties, essentially finishing with 17 points and 4 wins at the final table. Rocha agreed to continue to manage the club after the end of the season in spite of the failures and hardships that came with this season and on 8 June, for his unwavering loyalty to Thesprotos Football Club, he was announced to become an Honorary Citizen of Igoumenitsa, with the public ceremony taking place at the Municipal Stadium of Igoumenitsa (Thesprotos' home stadium) on 10 June, right before the match against Almopos.
Managerial statistics
- As of match played 10 January 2023
Team | From | To | Record | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
Paniliakos
|
19 July 1989 | 30 June 1990 | 38 | 28 | 7 | 3 | 73.7 |
Ilisiakos
|
1 July 1990 | 30 June 1991 | 39 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 43.5 |
Kalamata | 4 August 1991 | 30 June 1992 | 38 | 15 | 5 | 18 | 39.5 |
Panathinaikos | 14 March 1994 | 13 October 1996 | 121 | 80 | 18 | 23 | 66.1 |
Aris Thessaloniki | 21 January 1997 | 15 April 1997 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 16.6 |
Panathinaikos | 3 March 1999 | 3 June 1999 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 56.3 |
Skoda Xanthi | 26 December 2000 | 3 February 2001 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 42.9 |
Ilisiakos | 13 December 2005 | 27 February 2006 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 11.1 |
Olympiakos Nicosia | 23 November 2006 | 28 September 2007 | 18 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 33.3 |
Panathinaikos U20 | 1 July 2009 | 14 November 2012 | 100 | 51 | 30 | 19 | 51.0 |
Panathinaikos | 14 November 2012 | 7 January 2013 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 50.0 |
Ruch Chorzów | 10 September 2017 | 5 April 2018 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 42.8 |
Thesprotos | 28 August 2019 | Present | 103 | 24 | 25 | 54 | 23.3 |
Total | 525 | 247 | 116 | 162 | 47.05 |
Honours
Player
- Metropolitano: 1974
- Greek Cup: 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989
- Alpha Ethniki: 1983–84, 1985–86
Manager
- Greek Cup: 1995
- Alpha Ethniki: 1994–95, 1995–96
References
- ^ "Rocha, Juan Ramón". national-football-teams.com. National Football Teams. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
- ^ anotherfootballday.wordpress.com Πανηλειακός: Μισός αιώνας ζωής και κάτι για το καμάρι του Πύργου
- ^ "Ρότσα στο sport-fm.gr: "Σπίτι μου ο Παναθηναϊκός, δεν έπρεπε να φύγω - Θα σπάσει τα ρεκόρ ο Ιβάν"!". sport-fm. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
External links
- Official site at the Wayback Machine (archived March 27, 2008)
- Boca Juniors biography (in Spanish)