Diego Sebastián Cagna (born 19 April 1970) is an Argentine football coach and former player who played as midfielder.

Diego Cagna
Personal information
Full name Diego Sebastián Cagna
Date of birth (1970-04-19) 19 April 1970 (age 54)
Place of birth Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Argentinos Juniors
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1992 Argentinos Juniors 100 (12)
1992–1996 Independiente 117 (13)
1996–1999 Boca Juniors 115 (9)
2000–2002 Villarreal 77 (3)
2002 Celaya 17 (1)
2003–2005 Boca Juniors 82 (7)
Total 508 (45)
International career
1992–1999 Argentina 19 (1)
Managerial career
2006–2009 Tigre
2010–2011 Colo-Colo
2011 Newell's Old Boys
2012–2013 Estudiantes
2013 Tigre
2016–2017[1] San Martín-T
2018 Atlético Bucaramanga
2018–2019 Instituto ACC
2021 Jorge Wilstermann
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Argentina
FIFA Confederations Cup
Winner 1992 Saudi Arabia
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

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Cagna was born in Buenos Aires. His first professional first-division match was in December 1988, with Argentinos Juniors. He transferred to Independiente at the beginning of 1992, where he played for four years.

Cagna then went on to join Boca Juniors from the Apertura 1996 until the end of 1999 when, at 29 years of age and after finishing the Apertura 1999, he moved to La Liga side Villarreal CF. He played two seasons with the Yellow Submarine, and after playing the Apertura 2002 with Primera División de México club Atlético Celaya, he returned to Boca Juniors in 2003.

Diego Cagna, who was team captain with Independiente, Boca Juniors and Villarreal, eventually becoming a reserve player behind Boca Juniors' promising youngsters, and retired in 2005. All in all, he played a total of 255 games for Boca, scoring 21 goals.

International career

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With the Argentina national team Cagna won the Confederations Cup 1992, and participated in the Copa América 1999. His only goal for the national team was on 15 April 1998 friendly match against Israel in Jerusalem, which Argentina lost 2–1.[2]

Managerial career

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In December 2006, he became Tigre's manager, taking the club to the first division in only one season. Tigre's first year in the major division was successful with Tigre finishing in second place in the Apertura 2007 championship. This was Tigre's highest ever finish in the top division, gaining Cagna notoriety from fans and the sports press.[3]

In the Apertura 2008 championship Tigre finished joint top of the Primera División with Boca Juniors and San Lorenzo. Tigre had the best head-to-head record, San Lorenzo the best goal difference but Boca Juniors won the three-way championship playoff on goal difference after the three teams once again finished level on points.

Cagna then guided Tigre to qualification to an international club competition for the first time in their history at the end of the 2008–09 season. Tigre appeared in the 2009 Copa Sudamericana, where they were eliminated in the first round by San Lorenzo.

Having taken Tigre into the last game of two championship seasons with the possibility of winning the championship and led them to international qualification for the first time in their history, his fortunes turned in the Apertura 2009 where Tigre finished bottom of the table with only 8 points from 19 games prompting his resignation on 14 December 2009 after over three years with the club. The former Chacarita coach replaces on 20 April 2010 Hugo Tocalli as Head Coach by Colo-Colo.

Unfortunately, Cagna's results with the twenty-nine time Chilean champions have been disappointing, losing a 7-point advantage through several games until the end of the 2010 season, finishing runners-up of that tournament (Universidad Católica became finally champions). Moreover, his international appearance in Copa Sudamericana meant another disappointment since "Los Albos" were kicked out in first round home/away leg versus Universitario de Sucre.

Even though fans' patience is running really thin from 2010 – and even more after a non-convincing start of 2011 season – Cagna is still having a place as Colo Colo's manager. Fans currently call him "Despreocupado" (unworried, carefree) because of his negligent attitude before, during and after every match. This nickname is closely linked to a very popular TV commercial from an international financial group in Chile.[4]

Career statistics

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Appearances and goals by national team and year[5]
National team Year Apps Goals
Argentina 1992 7 0
1993 1 0
1994 2 0
1995 0 0
1996 0 0
1997 1 0
1998 1 1
1999 7 0
Total 19 1

Honours

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Independiente

Boca Juniors

Argentina

References

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  1. ^ San Martín despidió a Diego Cagna, eltucumano.com, 11 December 2017
  2. ^ "PLUS: SOCCER -- WORLD CUP; Argentina Shocked By Israel in Tuneup (Published 1998)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 July 2018.
  3. ^ La Razon article Archived 27 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Presidente viajó a Buenos Aires para reunirse con Diego Cagna Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Diego Cagna". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann.
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