Antonio Rattín

Antonio Ubaldo Rattín was born on 16 May 1937 in Tigre, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. His father was an immigrant from Trento in Italy who came to Argentina after the First World War, settled in Tigre and worked as a ship's engineer (the Guardian). From the age of four Rattín lived on the islands of the Tigre Delta. In his own words to El Gráfico, the home had no electricity or gas, with a wood stove, a kerosene lamp and a charcoal iron. His mother washed and ironed for island families and he delivered the laundry by boat to earn extra money. When the family moved to Tigre town they still had no indoor bathroom. He recalled that Boca president De Riglos visited the house, saw the outdoor latrine and had the club pay for a bathroom, a debt Rattín said he worked off by playing the whole of 1957. As a boy he rowed several kilometres alone to move a neighbour's furniture in exchange for a framed picture of a 1940s Boca team. He also made deliveries for a dry cleaner by bicycle before training as an electrician.

Details of Rattín's formal schooling have not been widely published. He began training as an electrician as a young man (the Guardian) and was still doing electrical work when he made his first-division debut in 1956. His football education came in neighbourhood and youth teams, including Juventud and Santa Magdalena of Villa Urquiza by his own account, before he joined Boca Juniors' youth divisions in the mid-1950s (Spanish Wikipedia gives 1955, arriving from Club Atlético Tigre). He said Chacarita and Tigre made him offers but he chose Boca.

Playing career. Rattín debuted for Boca Juniors on 9 September 1956 against River Plate at La Bombonera, replacing the injured Eliseo Mouriño and marking Ángel Labruna in a 2-1 win. He played only for Boca across 14 seasons until 1970. Boca-linked and press sources (BBC, Guardian, La Nación) give 382 official matches and 28 goals; English Wikipedia lists 357 matches and 28 goals, and an El Gráfico-derived photo essay gives 353 matches and 26 goals. He won the Primera División in 1962, 1964 and 1965, the Nacional in 1969 and the 1969 Copa Argentina, and was a Copa Libertadores runner-up in 1963 against Santos. La Nación also notes he was part of the squad for the 1970 Nacional. Of the 27 Superclásicos he played, Boca lost only five (the Guardian). Achilles tendon problems ended his career in mid-1970.

International career. Rattín played for Argentina from 1959 to 1969, with caps given as 32 (Wikipedia), 33 (La Nación) or 34 (the Guardian). His only goal came on 14 October 1964 in a 1-1 draw with Chile. He played at the 1959 and 1967 Copa América (runners-up both times), won the 1964 Taça das Nações in Brazil with wins over Portugal, Brazil and England without conceding, and played one match at the 1962 World Cup and four at the 1966 World Cup, where he was captain and wore the number 10.

Coaching and scouting. Rattín coached Boca's youth teams and managed Estudiantes de Río Cuarto (1976), Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (1979, with some sources adding 1977) and Boca Juniors (1980). His Boca side finished seventh in the 1980 Metropolitano after a 12-match unbeaten run, then went out in the first round of the Nacional. The Guardian also lists Tigre among his clubs. In 1978 he briefly worked as a South American scout for Sheffield United and was partly responsible for bringing Alejandro Sabella to Bramall Lane.

Politics. Rattín was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in 2001 on the list of the Federalist Unity Party (PAUFE), led by former police official Luis Abelardo Patti, and chaired the chamber's Sports Committee. English Wikipedia describes him as the first footballer to enter Congress. He served until 2005, then sat as a councillor for the Frente Justicialista (Peronist) in Vicente López from 2005 to 2009.

Rattín kept his family life largely out of the public eye. An Argentine photo essay built from his own captioned recollections names his first wife, María Elena Galetti, and their three daughters, the twins Mariel and Mirna and the youngest, Verónica. He was a lifelong Boca Juniors supporter and liked to say he had only ever worn two shirts, Boca's and Argentina's. Photographs from 1963 show him playing golf with teammate José Sanfilippo. He lived in the Vicente López area of Greater Buenos Aires, where he later served as a councillor. La Nación reported that he made his last public appearances in 2019, before the Covid pandemic and age-related health problems kept him away from large gatherings, and that he never returned to Wembley although it was one of his dreams.

Rattín's public views centred on loyalty, leadership and the duty of a captain. He believed to the end that his 1966 dismissal was unjust and that the referee favoured the hosts, a view shared by many South Americans at the time. He said he regretted only one thing about that afternoon, squeezing the English corner pennant. He was candid about coaches and opponents, naming Juan Carlos Lorenzo as the coach he could least stand and Pelé as the hardest opponent he faced. Politically he moved from the centre-right PAUFE of Luis Patti, for which he served as a national deputy from 2001 to 2005, to the Peronist Frente Justicialista, for which he was a Vicente López councillor from 2005 to 2009.

Rattín is regarded as one of the greatest idols in Boca Juniors history and one of the few Argentine footballers to spend an entire professional career at one club. The Guardian described him as a forerunner of the pivotal holding midfielders around whom modern teams are built. AFA called him one of the great captains in the history of the Argentina national team. His most global legacy is procedural: after the confusion of his 1966 dismissal, referees' chief Ken Aston devised yellow and red cards to remove language barriers in disciplinary decisions, and they were introduced at the 1970 World Cup. The match is also widely seen as the start of the modern England and Argentina football rivalry.

Boca Juniors: Argentine Primera División champion 1962, 1964, 1965 and Nacional 1969; Copa Argentina 1969; Copa Libertadores runner-up 1963. Argentina: Taça das Nações (Nations Cup) 1964; Copa América runner-up 1959 and 1967. Individual: IFFHS Argentina All Times Dream Team (Team B), 2021. Tributes: a statue in his honour at the Museo de la Pasión Boquense (dated 2015 by Spanish Wikipedia and Boca-focused reporting; the Guardian dates a statue at La Bombonera to 2005). Media and fans of his era called him El Alma de Boca (the soul of Boca).

Rattín made a cameo appearance in the Argentine film Paula contra la mitad más uno (1971). He appeared with River Plate goalkeeper Amadeo Carrizo in a Superclásico sketch on the long-running Argentine TV comedy La Tuerca. His life is the subject of the biography Antonio Ubaldo Rattín: El Caudillo by Alfredo Di Salvo (Autores Editores). The 1966 Wembley footage, including his long walk around the touchline with police, is among the most replayed images in World Cup history and features in FIFA's own retrospective videos. He gave numerous interviews over the decades, including a 1994 DiFilm interview and a long La Nación interview around the 50th anniversary of the match.

The 1966 sending-off. In the World Cup quarter-final between England and Argentina at Wembley on 23 July 1966, West German referee Rudolf Kreitlein dismissed Rattín, Argentina's captain, about half an hour into the match. Five players had already been booked, Rattín among them (the Guardian). The stated reason was reported as "violence of the tongue", although Kreitlein spoke no Spanish and Rattín spoke no German. Kreitlein was later quoted as saying that while Rattín said nothing he could understand, he could see in his face what he was saying. Rattín maintained he had asked only for an interpreter, as coach Juan Carlos Lorenzo had told him a captain was entitled to do, and showed the referee his captain's armband. He refused to leave for several minutes; the Guardian puts the delay at eight minutes, while Rattín's own recollection was far longer. He sat on the red carpet reserved for Queen Elizabeth II, by his account for about five minutes, and squeezed a corner pennant bearing the Union flag before police escorted him off. England won 1-0 with a second-half goal by Geoff Hurst. England manager Alf Ramsey said the Argentine players had acted "as animals", and statistics later showed England committed more fouls (33 to 19). Many South Americans believed the dismissal was contrived to help a European team. The episode led directly to Ken Aston's yellow and red card system. Other incidents. Rattín recalled chasing a referee and pinching his nose after a 2-1 defeat to Botafogo in Bolivia.

Rattín died on the morning of Saturday 11 July 2026, aged 89. Boca Juniors announced the news, saying it mourned "an idol and symbol of our institution" and ending "Hasta siempre, Rata". Argentine media reported he had been in hospital for several days; neither Boca nor AFA gave a cause of death, which has not been made public. AP and the Guardian place his death in Buenos Aires; Spanish Wikipedia gives Vicente López, in Greater Buenos Aires. According to the club's mutual society, his remains were not to be publicly viewed, at his own request. AFA, CONMEBOL and Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni paid tribute. By coincidence, his death came on the day of the 2026 World Cup quarter-finals, and Argentina's players wore black armbands in their win over Switzerland, which set up a semi-final against England.