| Date of birth | (1959-05-17)May 17, 1959 (age 65) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Marcelo Loffreda (born May 17, 1959, inBuenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine formerrugby union footballer and coach. Loffreda won 44caps with one as captain, playing atcentre for theArgentine rugby union side (los Pumas). He played much of his career outside the legendaryHugo Porta and scored 4 test tries.
In 1994 he hung up his playing boots and became a coach. In April 2000, he was appointed coach of Argentina and steered them to series victories overFrance,Wales andScotland, a draw with theBritish and Irish Lions, a win againstEngland atTwickenham in November 2006 as well as coming close to securing the Pumas' first victories overSouth Africa andNew Zealand. The Pumas went on to their all-time best finish of third at the2007 World Cup, including an opening win over hosts France, a pool win overIreland, and another win over France in the third-place match. This success was Loffreda's swansong as Pumas coach, as he had announced months before the tournament that he would leave the Pumas after the World Cup for the job of director of rugby atLeicester.[1]
Loffreda graduated incivil engineering atUniversidad de Buenos Aires and was sales manager for Argentinetextile andfootwear companyAlpargatas.[2]
He is married with five children: Sophia, Nicolas, Juana, Olivia and Marina (in age order)
Loffreda was sacked from his job as head coach at Leicester on June 6, 2008, after just one season at the club. Despite reaching two finals (EDF energy and Guinness Premiership) he was dismissed due to poor results. Leicester only just reached the Premiership playoffs and barely qualified for theHeineken Cup; from a club of such a high standard, this was seen as unacceptable. He was succeeded as Leicester Tigers coach by then 40-year-old South African,Heyneke Meyer in late June 2008.
He has returned to Argentina as a coach.