FACTBOX-Soccer-Daniel Passarella

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Factbox on Daniel Passarella who resigned as coach of River Plate, one of Argentina's biggest clubs, on Thursday.

* Born: May 25, 1953 in Chacabuco, province of Buenos Aires.

* Began his playing career with regional club Argentino de Chacabuco in 1966, joining River Plate in 1974.

* Passarella won the first of 70 caps for Argentina as a substitute in a 1-0 victory over the Soviet Union in a friendly in Kiev in 1976. He captained his country on 46 occasions.

* Captained Argentina to victory in World Cup finals on home soil in 1978. Also captained their unsuccessful defence of the trophy four years later in Spain. Was in the squad that won the 1986 tournament in Mexico but did not play because of illness.

* Left River Plate in 1982 to join to Fiorentina in Italy's Serie A, where he played 109 matches before leaving in 1986. Then spent three years at Inter Milan before returning to River Plate in 1988, where he retired as a player the following year and took over as coach.

* Steered River to National championship victory in 1990 and, with the league format revamped as two separate championships in one season, led River to two more titles in the next three years.

* Appointed Argentina coach in 1994, taking over from Alfio Basile. His ban on long hair prompted Fernando Redondo to quit the side in 1997 and he resigned immediately after Argentina lost 2-1 to the Netherlands in the 1998 World Cup quarter-final.

* Subsequently had unsuccessful stints as coach of Uruguay and Parma before regaining his winning touch at Mexico's Monterrey, where he led them to the 2002/3 Clausura championship.

* Joined Brazil's Corinthians in 2005 but was fired after only 15 games. He rejoined River Plate the following year and enjoyed some revenge as they knocked Corinthians out of the Libertadores Cup. However, River themselves fell in the following round to Paraguay's Libertad and failed to make it beyond the group stage of this year's tournament. (Compiled by Brian Homewood; Editing by Sonia Oxley)