Hugo Gatti

Hugo Gatti

Gatti while playing for Boca Juniors.
Personal information
Full name	Hugo Orlando Gatti
Date of birth	(1944-08-19) 19 August 1944 (age 72)
Place of birth	Carlos Tejedor, Argentina
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Youth career
1960–1961	Atlanta
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1962–1964	Atlanta	30	(0)
1964–1968	River Plate	77	(0)
1969–1974	Gimnasia La Plata	224	(0)
1974–1975	Unión Santa Fe	45	(0)
1976–1988	Boca Juniors	381	(1)
National team
1966–1977	Argentina	18	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Hugo Orlando Gatti, Loco Gatti (born 19 August 1944) is a former Argentine professional football goalkeeper who played in the Argentine First Division for 26 seasons and set a record of 765 appearances. He won three national championships, two Copa Libertadores tournaments, and one Intercontinental Cup with Boca Juniors, and played professionally until the age of 44.

Gatti, nicknamed El Loco (The Madman) was recognized for his charisma, his innovative playing style for his position and his eccentricity. He developed himself into a goalkeeper who relied on positional play rather than on his reflexes. He would frequently leave the penalty area to function as an additional field player, and join his teammates in defense – and many times in attack. Unlike most goalkeepers of his era, he made extensive use of his feet, head, and chest to control or strike the ball. He was one of the pioneers of the achique, the goalkeeping technique of running out to challenge an oncoming opposing player. He was also notable at facing penalty kicks, saving 26 of them throughout his career, tied for the most ever in Primera División with contemporary goalkeeper Ubaldo Fillol.

Gatti was voted Player of the Year of Argentina in 1982, and was ranked as the third best Argentine goalkeeper of the 20th Century in a poll by the IFFHS.

Born in Carlos Tejedor, Province of Buenos Aires, Gatti was the youngest of siblings. During his youth he was adept of playing as a forward, which according to himself was the best way of knowing how forwards tend to think and behave.