Antonio Rattín

Who is Antonio Rattín?

Antonio Ubaldo Rattín is a former Argentine football player, best known as a Boca Juniors midfielder, and because of an incident in a match at the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He later became a politician.

A Boca fan since childhood, Rattín joined their youth team, and debuted professionally on September 9, 1956 against Boca's major rival River Plate. Replacing injured Eliseo Mouriño, he had a good game which Boca won 2-1. Slowly he became the team's steady "number 5", and won the hearts of the fans with his sober and solid playing abilities.

In his fourteen-year professional career, Rattín played only for Boca Juniors, winning the Argentine championship in 1962, 1964 and 1965, and the Nacional in 1969.

With the Argentina national football team Antonio Rattín played thirty-two times, including the 1962 FIFA World Cup, and as the captain in the 1966 FIFA World Cup that took place in England.

It was in the quarter-final match against the host team that Rattín was sent off by the German referee Rudolf Kreitlein for "violence of the tongue", despite the referee speaking no Spanish. Rattín was so incensed with the decision, believing the referee to be biased in favour of England, that he initially refused to leave. As a way to show his disgust, he sat on the red carpet which was exclusively for the Queen to walk on. He eventually had to be escorted from the field by two policemen and as a final sign of disgust he wrinkled a British pennant before he was escorted out. This incident, and others surrounding the same game, arguably started the long-lasting rivalry between both national teams - but, on the other hand, allowed for the institution of yellow and red cards into the football practice, a solution devised by FIFA after the spark that set off the incident.