Santoro to coach Independiente for second time this year

October 7, 2008

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Former goalkeeper Miguel Angel Santoro is to take over as coach of Independiente for the second time this year after being named as the replacement for Claudio Borghi, who quit Sunday.

Santoro, who was uncertain about how many times he has taken charge, is routinely brought in on an interim basis to replace departing coaches at the club though Argentine media said that this time he would be given a one-year contract.

“It’s the fifth or sixth time,” he said in a radio interview on Monday. “I’m standing up and being counted as usual.”

The Diario y Noticias news agency put the total slightly lower at four, saying he had replaced Cesar Luis Menotti in 2005, Jorge Burruchaga in April 2007, Pedro Troglio in March and now Borghi.

Santoro, currently working as a goalkeeper coach for the Argentina under-20 and under-17 teams, said he had no hesitation about returning to the volatile club.

“It’s like having a friend who’s in a bad situation and you have to decide whether to give him a hand or leave him,” said Santoro, who won the South American Libertadores Cup four times as a player with Independiente.

Borghi, the club’s 19th coach in the last 10 years, quit on Sunday in the dressing-room minutes after Independiente lost 1-0 to Huracan, their third defeat in a row.

Traditionally one of Argentina’s biggest clubs after River Plate and Boca Juniors, Independiente have won the Libertadores Cup a record seven times.

However, they have struggled in recent years and their last domestic title was the Apertura championship played in the first half of the 2002/03 season.

Sunday’s defeat left them 15th in the 20-team Apertura championship with 10 points from nine games. (Reporting by Brian Homewood; Editing by John O’Brien)

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