Diego Placente

Diego Rodolfo Placente (born 24 April 1977) is an Argentine manager and former footballer who played as a left-back. He is the current manager of the Argentina U17 national team.

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Diego Placente

Placente with Bordeaux in 2009
Personal information
Full name	Diego Rodolfo Placente
Date of birth	(1977-04-24) 24 April 1977 (age 47)
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Left-back
Team information
Current team	Argentina U17 (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1995–1997	Argentinos Juniors	36	(0)
1997–2001	River Plate	110	(5)
2001–2005	Bayer Leverkusen	123	(3)
2005–2007	Celta Vigo	59	(0)
2008	San Lorenzo	14	(0)
2008–2010	Bordeaux	9	(0)
2010–2011	San Lorenzo	16	(0)
2011–2012	Nacional	11	(0)
2012–2013[1]	Argentinos Juniors	16	(1)
Total		394	(9)
International career
1997	Argentina U20	7	(1)
2000–2005	Argentina	22	(0)
Managerial career
2021–present	Argentina U17
Medal record Representing  Argentina (as manager) South American U-17 Championship 2023 Ecuador
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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Born in Buenos Aires, Placente started playing professionally in 1996 with Argentinos Juniors, before moving to Argentine giant River Plate in 1997. He transferred to Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2001, where he played until 2005 when his contract expired. Subsequently, he turned down an offer from English club Everton FC to join Celta de Vigo. While at Leverkusen he played in the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final.

In 2008, he returned to Argentina to play for San Lorenzo de Almagro. In the 2008 summer transfer window, he transferred to the French side of Bordeaux, and penned a two-year contract.^[2] After finishing that contract, he returned to San Lorenzo on a free transfer.^[3]

He played his first match with the Argentina national football team in 2001, and was capped 22 times.

Placente is married and his wife is Jewish. Because of this, he was subject of transfer talk to Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv. It was his wife though who was uninterested in moving to Israel, and the transfer never took place.^[5]