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| Date of birth | May 2, 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 88 kg (13 st 12 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gonzalo Quesada (born 2 May 1974) is an Argentine rugby former player and current coach, who presently works as head coach for the Italy national rugby union team.[1][2]
Quesada was born May 2, 1974, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He played for amateur club Hindú alongside the Fernández Miranda brothers Nicolás and Juan.[3]
Quesada won 39 caps playing at fly-half for the Argentine rugby union side between 1996 and 2003. He made his test debut at the age of 22 against the United States on 14 September 1996, winning 29:26. He won his final cap on 26 October 2003 during the 2003 Rugby World Cup against Ireland in Adelaide, Australia.[4] Argentina narrowly lost the match by one point, but Quesada scored 12 of his team's 15 points.[5] Overall, in internationals he scored twenty or more points in individual matches against seven teams: Canada, Samoa, Ireland, the USA, Wales, Japan and France, and a total of four tries,[6] with a 50% winning record.[7]
He was the top points scorer at the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales, achieving 102 points.[8][circular reference] The English media nicknamed him Speedy Gonzalo due to the extraordinary length of time he took preparing to take kicks at goal.[9]
After the 1999 World Cup, he was invited to play for Racing Club de Narbonne Méditerannée in France.[10] He left Narbonne in 2002 to sign for another French club, AS Béziers Hérault. In 2004 he moved to Stade Français,[11] where he played with compatriots Pichot, Corleto and Hernández.[12]
In 2005 he moved on from Stade to join Pau, but the club were relegated and he soon joined Toulon. In 2007 he returned to his former club Hindú.[13]
Since retiring as a player, Quesada has worked in a number of coaching roles. From 2008 to 2011 he was assistant coach for kicking for the French national team. Subsequently, he took on the role of backs coach for Racing 92 in 2011, before advancing to become head coach in 2012 after a troubled season for the team.[14][15]
Quesada moved to Stade Français in 2013, exceeding expectations by taking the team to the Top 14 title in 2015, in the process knocking out top sides Racing 92, Toulon and ASM Clermont Auvergne.[16] He ended a run of previous failures under the leadership of leading international coaches and players, turning the team around in short order.[17] In 2017 Quesada led Stade Français to a 25:17 win over Gloucester Rugby in the European Rugby Challenge Cup final.[18]
In June of the same year reports indicated that he would take up a new position as sports director at the Basque Country club Biarritz Olympique in the subsequent season.[19] However, following the appointments of a new club president and a director of rugby in 2018, it was announced that Quesada would move on.[20]
In August 2018, the Argentine Super Rugby team Los Jaguares confirmed his appointment as their new head coach in the southern hemisphere's premier club competition. He took charge after Mario Ledesma, who had just taken the team to the play-offs, left to replace Daniel Hourcade as head coach of the Argentine national team, Los Pumas.[21] In his first year in this role in 2019, Quesada brought his side through a busy schedule to achieving their first appearance in a Super Rugby final in Christchurch, New Zealand, finishing as 19:3 losers in a tight contest, which featured about a quarter of the current All Blacks and the majority of the Argentine international squad.[22][circular reference][23] According to Quesada, the strategy of selecting national team players for the Jaguares side put Argentina in a good position for the forthcoming Rugby Championship and Rugby World Cup.[24]
In June 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the Super Rugby season, he returned to Stade Français.[25]
On June 16 2023 the Italian Rugby Federation officially announced that Gonzalo Quesada had been selected as the new head coach of the Italy national rugby union team, replacing the New-Zealander Kieran Crowley from 1 January 2024.[26] On March 9 2024, Italy, with Quesada as head coach, beat Scotland 31-29 in the 4th round of the 2024 Six Nations Championship. It was Italy's first home win for 11 years in the Six Nations and their first win home or away in the tournament since beating Wales at the Millennium Stadium in 2022.[27] The following match, Italy beat Wales 24-21 at the Millennium Stadium. Despite finishing the tournament in fifth, this was considered a very successful campaign. It was the first time since 2013 Italy had achieved at least two wins in a Six Nations tournament and the first time since 2015 that they had not finished bottom of the table.[28]