Former Argentina National Team and 1978 World Cup-winning coach César Luis Menotti was admitted to a Buenos Aires City hospital on Sunday following a fall at his home. His relatives confirmed to the news agency Télam that he was taken as a precaution.

Mexican journalist José Ramon Hernández, who worked with Menotti during his days as a football analyst with ESPN, first broke the news.

“I have bad news for you, I’ve just found out that the great César Luis Menotti is in a very delicate condition in a hospital in Buenos Aires, something that hurts me a lot. A great coach and football genius, as well as a teacher and friend in World Cup broadcasts. I send all my love for him to Argentina”, Hernandez wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

Since then, members of Menotti’s inner circle have confirmed that the coach is in stable condition. “It was just a scare. He’s recovering as expected. It was predictable he’d be admitted. We hope he can be discharged in a few days”, sources told the newspaper La Voz de Córdoba.

The former National Team boss was unable to accompany Argentina to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar for medical reasons. El Flaco, as he’s affectionately known, suffers respiratory problems due to a cigarette addiction. In 2011, he had a lung nodule removed.

Menotti, who will either turn 85 on October 22 (as he claims) or on November 5 (according to his birth certificate), is the Director of National Teams for the Argentine Football Association (AFA) responsible for overseeing coordination between the Albiceleste’s youth and first teams. He was also instrumental in the confirmation of Lionel Scaloni as head coach of the Argentine National Team in 2019.

Menotti enjoyed an illustrious career in football management that was punctuated by the Albiceleste’s triumph in 1978. At the time, he was not only responsible for coaching the team but overhauling its entire structure, making sure selected footballers wouldn’t be sold outside the country ahead of the World Cup and establishing national play as a top priority. During his years on the sidelines, Menotti won a number of titles, including the 1973 Campeonato Metropolitano with Huracán, the 1983 Copa del Rey with FC Barcelona and the 1979 U20 World Cup with Argentina.