Mario Kempes

For me, Mario Kempes is the beating heart of 1978. Long hair flying, he embodied a rawer, more theatrical kind of striker, and his twice-over La Liga top-scorer run with Valencia (116 goals) shows it was no fluke. What I admire is how completely football consumed his life: after retiring he became a coach, a journalist, even a beach-soccer player. That's not someone clinging to fame; that's someone who simply can't leave the game. He gave Argentina a defining triumph, and I understand why his name still carries weight there. Some players win matches; Kempes won a country's imagination.

Name (English)

Mario Kempes

Name (Japanese)

マリオ・ケンペス

Reading

まりお・けんぺす

Born

July 15, 1954 (age 72)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Horse

Origin

Bell Ville, Córdoba Province, Argentina

Height

182 cm

Occupation

association football player / association football coach / journalist / beach soccer player

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario%20Kempes
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B1%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9A%E3%82%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q180649

Tags

• Córdoba Province
• association football player
• association football coach
• journalist

Last updated

2026-06-20

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.