Ricardo Ferretti

Ricardo Ferretti de Oliveira (born 22 February 1954) is a Brazilian former professional footballer and current manager of Liga MX club Tigres UANL. Ferretti has held Mexican citizenship since 2006. He is commonly referred to by his nickname Tuca.

Ferretti as a player was a multifunctional midfielder with a powerful right shot and ability to score and assist goals. He was deployed as a central midfielder, attacking midfielder and winger. He spent most of his playing career with Pumas UNAM. He also played for Botafogo, Vasco da Gama and Bonsucesso in his native Brazil, and Atlas, Toros Neza, Monterrey and Toluca in Mexico.

As a manager, he has had three separate stints with Tigres UANL, two with Pumas UNAM, and has also managed Toluca, Guadalajara and Monarcas Morelia. He is known for his ordered style focused on possession, the strict discipline he demands from his players and his aggressiveness on the bench.

In 2015, between 20 August and October 13, Ferretti served for four matches as interim manager of Mexico. He won the 2015 CONCACAF Cup against the United States on October 10, 2015 at the Rose Bowl of Pasadena, California.

Ferritti has made Tigres UANL one of the most successful clubs in Mexico during his third stint since 2010; as Tigres ranked one of the top 20 clubs in the world according to IFFHS and ranked number one in CONCACAF as of 2016.

Career

Early Career

After retiring as a player, Ferretti started to work as a football coach in 1991 with Pumas UNAM. In 1996 he moved to Guadalajara where he won the league championship in 1997, and a runner-up position in 1998. With Chivas he failed to qualify for the play-offs only once in eight seasons.

In 2000 he moved to Tigres UANL, a team that constantly failed to qualify for the play-offs, despite having a squad with many star players, including many from the Mexico national team, such as Jorge Campos and Luis Hernández, and from other national teams as well. In his first year, Ferretti qualified the team for the play-offs, and a season later he made them runners-up.

He stayed with Tigres until 2003, where his constant success and the good economic standing of the team combined to make Ferretti one of the best paid coaches of the time. However, that year's Clausura saw the first ever semi-final Clásico Regiomontano, in which Tigres played their arch-rival Rayados. Both teams were favorites for the championship, and the first game started well for Tigres, but the players' mistakes combined to give Rayados a 4–1 victory on the first leg, and the second leg was made insignificant. Because of the team's failure to defeat their arch-rival in the semi-finals, the team decided not to renew the coach's contract. Ferretti then moved on to coach Toluca for the Apertura 2003.

However, in that season, Tigres signed Nery Pumpido as coach, but because of the similarity in the style of play and the almost insignificant change to the squad's roster, local media in Monterrey always rumored that Ferretti coached Tigres behind Pumpido. Tigres became runner-up again that season, and won a semi-final against Ferretti's Toluca.

In 2004, due to personal differences with José Cardozo, and despite qualifying for the play-offs in all his seasons in Toluca, Ferretti was separated from the team. He then moved on to coach Morelia, with mixed success.

Tigres UANL

On 1 January 2006, Ferretti was appointed as coach for the a second time. Under his guidance, Tigres won the InterLiga, qualifying the team to the Copa Libertadores de América, and then to the play-offs of that tournament. However, Tigres failed to qualify for the Clausura 2006 playoffs, and to advance in the Libertadores. On 30 June 2006 because of this failure, Tigres decided to cease the relationship.

Pumas UNAM

On May 23, 2006 he signed again with Pumas and led them to yet another final.^[1] This time against Atlante, a team which had endured a difficult yet brilliant season. Pumas came in as underdogs due to the fact they didn't have a great season but they shined in the playoffs using home-field advantage to the full extent. They became a nightmare for other teams inside Ciudad Universitaria. So much that on the first leg of the semi-finals against No.1 seed Santos, they beat them to the rhythm of 3–0. No team during the season had scored so much on Santos. But in the first leg of the final, Pumas couldn't deliver on Atlante. On the final's second leg, Pumas fell to them with a score of 2–1. The game ended with the game winner shot from outside the box.

In the 2009 season, Ferretti took Pumas back to the finals after a lot of comebacks in the playoffs. They were the underdogs yet again but beat Pachuca (who had beaten them in the regular season 2–1) in extra time 3–2, giving them their 6th title in its team's history.

Tigres UANL

After Pumas was eliminated in the 2010 playoffs, Ferretti quit as manager due to a huge disappointment. He was quickly signed as coach to Tigres. The third time around was the charm for Ferretti, as he led Tigres to win Apertura 2011 over Santos Laguna, the third title for Tigres and first in 29 years. He was awarded best manager of the tournament for the first time in his career. On April 9, 2014, Tigres won the Clausura 2014 Copa MX against Alebrijes de Oaxaca by 3-0 making Ferretti the first coach in Mexico to win league and cup titles with the same team. Tigres faced Morelia for the Supercopa MX after their qualification from the Copa MX. They finished runner-up after losing 5–4 in aggregate scoreboard. Tigres made it to the final of the Apertura 2014 his second final since 2011 losing to América in an aggregate scoreboard of 3-1.

For the Apertura 2015 Ferritti signed wingers Jürgen Damm and Javier Aquino along with international forwards Ikechukwu Uche and André-Pierre Gignac to help strengthen the squad. It was under the command of Ferritti, in July 2015, that the Tigres became the third Mexican team ever to play the finals of the Copa Libertadores, however Tigres lost to River Plate. During that same season Ferretti led Tigres to their fourth title, his second with the team against his former club Pumas in a penalty shoot-out winning 4–2 after finishing with an aggregate scoreline of 4-4.^[2] During the month of March and beginning of April Tigres suffered a 6 game winless run in all competitions with only 5 draws and 1 loss to their rival Monterrey. They went 4 games without a single goal. This crisis ended when they beat Querétaro to qualify to the finals of the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League their third final within a year with an 8 game undefeated streak, but lost both matches to América winning their 7th term as champions. Tigres barely qualified to the playoffs in 8th place when they managed to beat Cruz Azul in a 3–0 win at Estadio Azul. They once again faced their rival Monterrey in the quarterfinals. In the first-leg Tigres lost at home 3–1, but won their second match 2–1. Tigres were eliminated from the tournament suffering a hugh defeat to Monterrey. His team ended the season as the best defensive team only receiving 35 goals during both tournaments, proving how strong his defensive line-up has gotten.

During the pre-season Tigres became champions of the Campeón de Campeones earning their first title against Pachuca after their newly signed player Ismael Sosa scored the only goal to win. Ferritti signed the team's second French player Andy Delort. With his best strategy Tigres led an 11 game undefeated streak 15 in all competitions since May, this ended in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League losing 1–0 to Plaza Amador.^[3] Tigres were up in third place with 23 points behind Pachuca in the league table with 6 wins 5 draws and 0 loses during the Apertura 2016 before losing to León 3–2 in the second half of the game. Tigres went on to lose once again at home against Necaxa in a 2–0 defeat having a 3 match losing streak. Tigres finished first in their group of the CONCACAF Champions League with 9 points with 3 wins and 1 loss, qualifying them to the next round against Pumas.^[4] Tigres qualified to their 5th play-offs in a row since the Apertura 2014 after beating Tijuana in an away game 1–0, breaking Tijuana's undefeated home streak of 7 games in the season.^[5]

Mexico

On 20 August 2015, Ricardo Ferretti was named as the interim coach for Mexico. ^[6] In his interim process, he tied in friendly matches against Trinidad & Tobago and Argentina, won the 2015 CONCACAF Cup against the U.S. on October 10, 2015 at the Rose Bowl of Pasadena, California and won his farewell match, a friendly against Panama before being replaced by Juan Carlos Osorio.

Managerial statistics

Managerial statistics

As of 4 December 2016^{[n 1]}

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Guadalajara		1 January 1996	30 June 2000	7002196000000000000♠196	7001880000000000000♠88	7001550000000000000♠55	7001530000000000000♠53	7002307000000000000♠307	7002227000000000000♠227	+80	7001449000000000000♠44.90
UNAL		1 July 2000	30 June 2003	7002121000000000000♠121	7001510000000000000♠51	7001360000000000000♠36	7001340000000000000♠34	7002163000000000000♠163	7002137000000000000♠137	+26	7001421500000000000♠42.15
Toluca		30 September 2003	31 December 2004	7001800000000000000♠80	7001400000000000000♠40	7001140000000000000♠14	7001260000000000000♠26	7002137000000000000♠137	7002102000000000000♠102	+35	7001500000000000000♠50.00
Morelia		1 January 2005	31 December 2005	7001400000000000000♠40	7001170000000000000♠17	7000900000000000000♠9	7001140000000000000♠14	7001590000000000000♠59	7001510000000000000♠51	+8	7001425000000000000♠42.50
UANL		1 January 2006	30 June 2006	7001270000000000000♠27	7001100000000000000♠10	7001100000000000000♠10	7000700000000000000♠7	7001390000000000000♠39	7001330000000000000♠33	+6	7001370400000000000♠37.04
UNAM		23 May 2006	16 May 2010	7002179000000000000♠179	7001640000000000000♠64	7001580000000000000♠58	7001570000000000000♠57	7002237000000000000♠237	7002188000000000000♠188	+49	7001357500000000000♠35.75
UANL		20 May 2010	Present	7002318000000000000♠318	7002145000000000000♠145	7002100000000000000♠100	7001730000000000000♠73	7002478000000000000♠478	7002295000000000000♠295	+183	7001456000000000000♠45.60
Mexico		20 August 2015	15 October 2015	7000400000000000000♠4	7000200000000000000♠2	7000200000000000000♠2	5000000000000000000♠0	7000900000000000000♠9	7000700000000000000♠7	+2	7001500000000000000♠50.00
Total				7002953000000000000♠953	7002413000000000000♠413	7002281000000000000♠281	7002259000000000000♠259	7003138200000000000♠1,382	7003106800000000000♠1,068	+314	7001433400000000000♠43.34

Honours

Player

UNAM

• Primera División de México: 1980–81, 1990–91
• Copa Interamericana: 1980
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1980, 1982

Toluca

• Copa México: 1988–89

Manager

Club

Guadalajara

• Primera División de México: Verano 1997

Toluca

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2003
• Campeón de Campeones: 2003

UNAM

• Primera División de México: Clausura 2009

UANL

• Liga MX: Apertura 2011, Apertura 2015
• Copa MX: Clausura 2014
• Campeón de Campeones: 2016
• Interliga: 2006

International

Mexico

• CONCACAF Cup: 2015

Individual

• Best Coach of the tournament: Apertura 2011

Notes

References

External links

• Profile at Globo Esporte's Futpedia
• Profile at BDFA.com.ar
• Profile at Mediotiempo.com