Ramon Diaz at Oxford United: The story of how Argentine took charge of League Two club
That was December 2004.
Oxford United, the 1986 League Cup winners, have fallen from the second tier to the fourth tier since 1999, mired in a slump and facing a slump after boss Firoz Kassam sacked Graham Rix. ), the team also declined in the second division.
The club’s unpopular owner Kassam invited out-of-work manager Chris Turner to watch the team’s 1-0 loss to Swansea City, with most assuming he was the new manager, including oxford mail, external and some players.
But instead… “It was weird,” former Team USA forward Basham said. “Five or six people came in in a row. They all stood in front of us, and except for a translator, not one of them spoke English.”
“All the players had their eyes wide open wondering, ‘Who are these people?'” Goiran said.
These people are Diaz, head coach Horacio Rodriguez, another coach Raul Markovic, Goylan, fitness coach Pablo Fernandez, doctor Rafael Juli Eddie and translator Giuliano Iacoppi.
But wait, how did things come to this? It all started in Monaco – where Kassam and Goylan live and where Diaz also played for the club and has a home.
Kassam contacted Goiran, a friend of a friend who had worked as a football agent and consultant, to help find a head coach, and the Monegasque recommended Diaz – who left in 2002 River Plate.
It was widely reported at the time that Diaz had not been paid to serve as Oxford’s head coach, and Kassam said Diaz had been “promised to give him a stake in the club in exchange for his success”.
But Goylan said 20 years later that Diaz and Goylan were paid consultancy fees at Monaco by Kassam’s company Firoka, not the club.
The question many are asking is – why would a manager with five Argentinian titles and a Copa Libertadores title come to Oxford in the second division?
Goylan said it was part of a plan to reach the Premier League within five years, but after that bitter end, Diaz, now manager of Brazil’s Corinthians, never worked in England or even Europe again.
Goalkeeper Tardif said: “When they first came in there were huge discussions about rebuilding the pitch, putting a new stand behind the goal and taking us into the Premier League.”
