Guillermo Stábile

Stábile celebrating Argentina's second goal against Uruguay at the 1930 final

Stábile made his debut for the Argentina national team at the age of 25, in his team's second match in the first ever FIFA World Cup held in 1930 in Uruguay. He did not play in Argentina's first match of the competition against France.[1]

His debut came in the following game against Mexico, because the first choice striker Roberto Cherro couldn't play due to an anxiety attack. The game finished 6–3 to Argentina, with Stábile scoring a hat-trick on his debut. This was long thought to be the first World Cup hat-trick, until 76 years later on 10 November 2006 world football's governing body FIFA declared that Bert Patenaude had scored the first hat-trick two days prior to Stábile.[2]

The final game of the group stages saw Argentina facing South American rivals Chile. They won the game 3–1 with Stábile scoring twice, meaning that Argentina had qualified for the semi-finals, against the United States. The South Americans breezed through, with a 6–1 victory; Stábile added two more goals to his account and securing Argentina a place in the finals.

On 30 July 1930, the first ever World Cup final took place, between Argentina and Uruguay. At half time Argentina led 2–1, Stábile having scored the second goal. However, they went on to lose 4–2.

Despite losing the final, Stábile made history, becoming the top scorer in the first ever FIFA World Cup, with his tally of 8 goals in 4 games. It turned out that he would never play for Argentina again, and thus he scored in every game he played for his country, with an average of two goals per match.

International goals

Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Stábile goal.

List of international goals scored by Guillermo Stábile

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Round	Report
1	19 July 1930	Estadio Parque Central, Montevideo, Uruguay	Mexico	1–0	6–3	1930 FIFA World Cup	Group 1
2				3–1
3				6–3
4	22 July 1930	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay	Chile	1–0	3–1	1930 FIFA World Cup	Group 1
5				2–1
6	26 July 1930	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay	United States	3–0	6–1	1930 FIFA World Cup	Semi-final
7				6–0
8	30 July 1930	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay	Uruguay	2–1	2–4	1930 FIFA World Cup	Final

Stábile (right) as coach of the Argentina national team with player José Salomón in 1946

Stábile had received his first taste of managing, way back in the 1931–32 season at Genoa, long before he retired from playing. Here he spent the aforementioned season as a co-manager, alongside Luigi Burlando.

After a year at Red Star Paris, he became player-manager for the club; this included the season in which they were promoted from Ligue 2. Stábile left the French club, to coach the Argentina national team. He began his spell in 1939.

Stábile coached Argentina to six South American Championship trophies: in 1941, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1955 and 1957. After the first round exit at the 1958 World Cup, where Argentina lost the last of its three matches with 1–6 to Czechoslovakia, his time with the national side came to a halt. He was called back to the helm of Argentina in 1960 and he led Argentina in the third and last edition of the Panamerican Football Championship, which took place in Costa Rica.

With the Argentina national side, as a coach (just as he had as a player) Stábile, set records; he coached the national team in 123 official matches gaining 83 victories, making him one of the few coaches with more than 100 international matches in charge.

While managing the national side, he also had spells coaching three other clubs, first the club where he began his career, Huracán and then later Ferro and Racing Club. He led Racing to three consecutive championships between 1949 and 1951.[3]

Stábile retired from management in 1960 to take up the role of director of the Argentina national school of football managing, a post he held, until his death in 1966.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guillermo Stábile.

• Futbol Factory profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 October 2007) (in Spanish)