Here is
@Synco 's epic and excellent Kempes profile. TL: DR He had a seriously consistent high peak between 1976 and 1980.
MARIO KEMPES WAS A HELL OF A FOOTBALLER
Mario Kempes is a strange case. Most people - me included up until recently - know him solely for his stellar 1978 World Cup, in which he won both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot, and decided the final against the Netherlands with a brace and assist, alongside an astonishingly dominant overall performance. In sharp contrast to this, almost nothing is known about his club career in Argentina and Spain, and his national team career seems sketchy and unremarkable aside from this one tournament.
This lopsided picture results in the odd impression of a one hit wonder who somehow reached the heights of a true world class player for a few weeks, then disappeared into obscurity again. But I think this impression is false. While some caveats about his NT fortunes and relatively early decline are valid, a closer look indicates this picture is more the result of retrospective blind spots than a lack of excellence on the player's part.
Digging deeper, the impression solidifies that Kempes' World Cup performance was not a one-off at the right moment, but simply the manifestation of his true peak performance level at the biggest stage of football.
In short: I think Kempes is severely underrated in our circles, and he's well due a status boost. I will share my findings and impressions.
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Kempes on 'tape'
I'll start out with visual evidence of the player in his prime. First an all touch compilation I cut for another big game of his, the 1979 Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid. Kempes gives a magnificent allround performance, deciding the match with a brace.
Next up a crucial match later in his career, the final of Argentina's Campeonato Nacional in December 1981. Again Kempes decided the game, this time with a towering header. Notably, this performance came at the end of a 16-months period marred by chronic injury problems at Valencia and River Plate, keeping him out or half-fit a lot of the time.
Safe to say he still had it.
Now add his 1978 WC to the mix, and the picture of the player in his prime starts to emerge - a player who combines the traits of a technical, hardworking, roaming AM/forward and a pacy physical striker.
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Player profile: the dominant universalist
Prime Kempes was a rare combination of height, speed, strength, technique, smartness, and a relentless drive. He could beat defenders through pace, feints, dribblings, sheer power, or any combination of these. He also had a true striker's instinct for off the ball movement and sudden opportunities, which could give him a decisive advantage at any moment. He had the first touch to set himself up immediately. He could pass. He was a nightmare to defend.
The best stylistic comparison I can think of is a cross between Ruud Gullit and Gabriel Batistuta. Funnily this is even true in appearance, but just as much in terms of Kempes' in-game characteristics. At least in my eyes - it can certainly be discussed.
He was the offensive centerpiece of Valencia and '78 Argentina: the go-to-guy who made things happen, and the main man to finish it off as well. Yet he maintained a balance between talismanic difference maker and hardworking team player. A leader who was part of the collective.
Positionally, Kempes was as versatile as it gets. Nominally a central player, he could operate from both central and wide positions, deeper in midfield and high up in the opposition box. He was used in various positions and roles over his career, and when he had freedom to move, he popped up pretty much everywhere (see the compilation vs Real). He took direct freekicks, corners and indirect freekicks, and penalties, although neither of them exclusively.
The physicality of Kempes' game must also be mentioned. It wasn't uncommon for defenders to just bounce off him in 1vs1 duels, while he could still shield and control the ball. Sometimes they needed a bit of a lie down too, afterwards. On the other hand, Kempes wasn't shy to put himself on the line, and he was a frequent target for classic '70s/'80s style hackdowns. He also defended with intensity. This physical approach to the game likely contributed to the injury troubles he experienced while still quite a young player.
When was Kempes' peak?
This is actually hard to determine exactly, because information on day-to-day affairs at Rosario, Valencia, River Plate aren't readily available. But it's reasonable to rate Kempes' first four seasons at Valencia as his absolute peak, so 1976/77 to 1979/1980. On purely statistical terms, this period includes:
- Two Pichichi trophies (76/77 and 77/78), scoring 24 and 28 times respectively
- The 1978 World Cup
- The 1979 Copa del Rey win, including Kempes' final performance captured above
- A victorious Cup Winners Cup campaign in 79/80 in which Kempes scored 9 goals in 9 games
- 120 goals in 176 games overall for club & country (assist numbers being of course unknown)
Somewhat harder to evaluate are the periods before and after this timeframe. Still, especially Kempes' formative years in Argentina already look very impressive. Here we go:
Early years in Argentina: El Matador
A young Kempes already made his presence felt on the highest stages of national and continental football. For Instituto de Córdoba and mainly Rosario Central, he scored 104 goals in 136 games, at age 18 to 22. (Two Copa Libertadores campaigns with Rosario have to be added to Wikipedia's stats.)
In 1974 Rosario finished runner up in both the Campeonato Metropolitano and Campeonato Nacional (Argentina's two main league competitions at that time), 20 years-old Kempes becoming top scorer of the latter competition with 25 goals. He repeated this feat in the 1976 Metropolitano, scoring 21 times. His performances earned Kempes his nickname, El Matador.
After an unremarkable 1974 Copa Libertadores outing, the
1975 CL campaign proved to be more successful. Rosario missed the final only by a hair's breadth - a goal difference of one - in a super tight final group stage, all three teams ending up level on points.
Kempes scored 3 goals in 4 matches, having already netted the winning goal in the play off game to qualify for that group. In the first group stage he scored once in four games.
On the basis of these performances, 22 year old Kempes was bought by Valencia for a major fee. Contemporary and retrospective reports vary between about 500.000 and 650.000 dollars. This was a remarkable sum at that time - only a handful of players had ever commanded a similar or greater fee. Three years earlier, Cruyff's transfer to Barcelona set a world record at 1m dollars, beaten only by Breitner's 1.5m move to Real a year later.
Kempes also made his breakthrough in the Argentina national team, scoring 14 times in 24 games before his move to Valencia. But he couldn't yet impose himself on the big occasions: He failed to score in the 1974 World Cup (2 assists), with Argentina crashing out in the final group phase. In the 1975 Copa América, Kempes scored 3 in 4, but all of his goals came in total routs against Venezuela, while Argentina lost both decisive matches against Brazil in a mini group of death.
Still, there were signs of a promising start to his national team career. After a disappointing 1974 World Cup, 20 year old Kempes made a vow to be prepared next time. And he was.
As a resumé: If we add Kempes' early career in Argentina to his 76-80 peak, we have the picture of a consistent volume scorer from day one, who eventually grew into one of the great matchwinners of his time. Overall, he scored 249 goals in 347 matches for his clubs and national team over a 9-year period before his move back to Argentina in 1981. And we already know his game was about much more than just that.
Peak years and 'retrospective' Ballon d'Or
Prime Kempes' achievements and on-field impact have already been described, no need to repeat that. What remains is to acknowledge that he was likely the best footballer in the world in 1978. His mercurial World Cup was backed up by his club performances.* If South American players had been eligible for the Ballon d'Or, Kempes would have surely won it that year, a circumstance reflected in France Football's unofficial reevalution of 2016, where he was unsurprisingly chosen over Keegan.
(The Simonsen/Keegan years would have generally been a great opportunity for South American players. The 1977 award may have well gone to Zico, for example.)
* It should be noted that mid- to late-1970s Valencia never managed to put on consistent performances in the league, but they come across as a proper cup team ready to take on anyone.
Move to River Plate and late career
In 1981 Kempes was bought by River Plate with a lot of fanfare to counter Boca Junior's aquisition of Diego Maradona. Valencia reluctantly parted ways with their talisman for a sum that ran Maradona's world record fee (4m dollars) close. The circumstances of this move have been amply described elsewhere, no need to repeat them.
What's important though, is that Kempes was already troubled by chronic injuries since the beginning of Valencia's season, causing him to miss many games:
Luque's strike partner at the 1978 World Cup was not so lucky at River. Mario Kempes joined River Plate in 1981, the star from the World Cup winning team. He was brought from Valencia to offset the furore over Boca's capture of Maradona. "They knew I was injured when I arrived," says Kempes from his desk at the ESPN studios in New York. "At Valencia they hadn't found what was wrong with me, and I didn't play for six months after joining River."
Kempes missed the first superclasico, when Maradona left Fillol on the floor, but was fit for the following clash, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Maradona and Kempes were the two scorers.
source
The latter claim can be disproved though, as Kempes did play on and off during that timeframe. (Maybe he meant six weeks, or the
final six months of his River stint? Maybe he just misremembered?) Still, both Kempes' final months in Valencia and his entire time in Argentina were interrupted by frequent spells on the sideline, and this must be seen as the beginning of the end of his career at elite level.
Kempes' second Argentinian episode would need further research to establish a clearer picture of injuries, individual and team performances. Beyond the fine final performance posted above, there is full game and
compilation material, but that's perhaps for another day.
In the end, River managed (or decided) to pay only half of the agreed fee to Valencia, and so Kempes (now aged 28) returned to Valencia after 1.5 seasons in Argentina. Numbers indicate he wasn't the same player anymore, and in 1984, after another injury-ravaged season, he moved to Hércules Alicante where his fitness issues continued. He managed to get going again after moving to Vienna and St. Pölten, and spent the (surprisingly long) remainder of his career in Austria, Albania, Chile, and Indonesia.
Kempes and the national team
Despite his stellar 1978 performance, Kempes' NT record is notably mixed, ranging from the highest heights to outright disappointments. But it also needs contextualisation.
What's safe to say is that Kempes never came close to his 1978 performance levels in another tournament. He played his last game at age 28 in a disappointing World Cup exit, the main players of the team being Maradona and Passarella at that point.
And as everyone knows, there's also a black mark on Kempes' greatest achievement. Argentina's 1978 victory will forever be tarnished by its political circumstances, the military dictatorship using the tournament and eventual triumph as a PR boost while imposing a
reign of terror on Argentinian society. There were also serious accusations of manipulations to help the Argentinians make the final in the first place.
On a pure sporting level, the most important mitigating issue is that Kempes was forced to almost entirely miss out on international football during his prime. The exception was seven World Cup games in 1978, and we know how that ended. Months before his move to Valencia, the military junta seized power. One minor consequence was that players playing for foreign clubs were banned from the national team. (Argentina's 1974 WC squad had six players playing abroad.) Only shortly before his move to River Plate in 1981, Kempes was called up again.
This means Kempes lost out on the opportunity to make the Argentina team his own, like he did in these few weeks in 1978. Not only before, but even after the World Cup. Overall, he missed out on 32 games while being at the peak of his powers, including the Copa América the year after the victorious World Cup.
This leaves us with the record of an emerging youngster up until 1976, and of the post-peak version of a player already hampered by sustained injury troubles. Even then it would be necessary to watch Kempes' performances for a proper evaluation. (I may do so in the future.)
For example, it was my impression that in 1982 Kempes frequently moved to deeper positions to accomodate Maradona, who had inevitably taken Kempes' #10 spot as the offensive hub of the team. Which would alter the criteria for evaluating Kempes' performances. But this impression would have to be confirmed or rejected by watching the full games.
All things considered, I see Kempes' rollercoaster of a NT career mainly as a case of 'what could have been'. Neither can hypothetical further success during his peak years be taken for granted, nor can its absence be blamed on player when he simply wasn't allowed to play. It just didn't happen.
Conclusion
My primary aim was to put Kempes' marquee performance in 1978 in the context of his career as a whole, showing that it wasn't a fluke or an anomaly. It rather was the natural expression of his true (and at club level sustained) peak level at the World Cup stage. This is the footballer we should remember: an universalist monster player who could carry a whole offense on his back, while still putting the team first.
My research takeaway is that the 1973 to 1980 period of his career was a coherent and continuous progression to footballing greatness, and worthy of an all-time level attacking player. However, Kempes' career didn't fully match the massive potential, partly because of his exclusion from the national team 1976-80, partly because of his early injury-driven decline. While in the beginning he could still punctually turn on beast mode (as evidenced by the Campeonato Nacional final posted above), fitness issues increasingly took their toll, and his career at top level basically ended at the age of 30 after a protracted wind-down.
This makes a complicated case, and Kempes' status in football history is certainly a matter of discussion. I find it easier to form an opinion on his draft status though, since his world class peak was long and comprehensive enough to assume it's
this version of the player that is drafted and played. This would surely mean a serious increase in status inside our community, I'd say to a major attacking force. Which is naturally up for discussion too.
Finally, a quote from Diego Maradona about Kempes: "He is the man who put Argentinian football on the map."
And, as we've seen, still much more than that.
