Juan Ramón Rocha

Juan Ramón Rocha (born 8 March 1954) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Greek Super League 2 club Thesprotos.

Born in Santo Tomé, Corrientes, Rocha began his professional career at Newell's Old Boys in 1972, he was part of their Metropolitano winning team in 1974.

He moved to Boca Juniors in 1979 and played in 1979 Copa Libertadores finals.

In 1980, he was transferred to Greek soccer club Panathinaikos where he played until his retirement on July 1, 1989.

Nicknamed The Indian, Rocha was a skillful player, with vision and remarkable sportsmanship.

He is considered by many one of the greatest players in the team's history.

Rocha was first signed for Panathinaikos under the name Boublis with Greek papers; the subsequent discovery of record falsifications and ensuing scandal almost landed Rocha in jail and Panathinaikos in the second division.

These allegations were later dismissed and both Panathinaikos and Rocha were acquitted.

This was one of the many cases of "hellenization" of foreign players for many Greek soccer clubs.

After retirement he started coaching, first Paniliakos in where he was coach-player at the Fourth Division, then Iliasiakos, Kalamata FC and Skoda Xanthi.

On March 12, 1994, Ivica Osim was removed from the technical leadership of Panathinaikos 6 games before the end of the 1993-94 season and Rocha was asked to replace him.

After Rocha's arrival, Panathinaikos recorded 8 wins, winning all of their remaining games, including the cup final against AEK, which was marred by riots and conflict between fans, on penalties.

In the first 3 games with Rocha, Panathinaikos scored wide wins against Iraklis (3-0), Larissa (5-0) and Doxa (8-0) earning the trust of Panathinaikos who decided to keep him in place.

Rocha made significant changes to Osim's game plan, putting his own stamp on the reform.

He made Juan José Borrelli, who was under question and possible transfer during Osim's reign, a vital member of the starting lineup as well as G.S. Georgiadis, G.H. Georgiades, Doni, Kapouranis to whom he gave different roles as was the case with the placement of Apostolakis as a defensive half.

Before the start of the next season, Panathinaikos won the Super Cup in August 1994 by defeating AEK Athens 3-0.

At the end of the 1994-95 season they also won a double.

In 1995-96, he repeated his success as a coach in reaching the Champions League last four by guiding Panathinaikos to the semi-final against Ajax.

Having overcome the obstacles of Heyduk, Nantes, Porto, Alborg MK and Legia, Panathinaikos on 3 April 1996 won 1-0 in Amsterdam against AFK Ajax, who had not been defeated in a European match since 16 March 1994.

However, they failed to qualify for the final in the replay.

They also won the Greek championship.

Rocha was removed from Panathinaikos on 13 October 1996, having earlier been eliminated from the Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifiers by Rosenborg MK and Legia respectively.

He also managed Olympiakos Nicosia in Cyprus.

He then became member of the scouting team of Panathinaikos, mostly searching players in Argentina and South America.

By defeating Olympiacos at home and away, he became the third Panathinaikos coach to do so after Kinsler and Gorski, while in the following years only Victor Munioth in 2007 became the winner of both league derbies.

After Jesualdo Ferreira resigned at 14 November 2012, Rocha once more became the manager of Panathinaikos.

In the championship they finished first with a 16-point difference from 2nd place Olympiacos, scoring 83 goals while they won 5 games scoring 5 goals and 2 games scoring 6.

To reach the final of the Greek Cup they had to beat Olympiacos 2-3 at Karaiskaki.

In the cup final, he won the trophy by defeating AEK Athens 1-0.

Having won 3-0 during the championship he completed 4 victories against AEK in one year (20/4/1994 - 19/4/1995).

On 11 September 2017 he was introduced as the coach of Ruch Chorzów.

In the 2019 close season, he became manager of Thesprotos of Igoumenitsa, right after the team was promoted for the first time to the professional divisions.

It was a surprise to the Thesprotos board that Rocha had accepted their offer and Rocha claimed that his romanticist attitude to football determined him to try out a new challenge.

In the 2019-20 season in which the decades-old Second Division (Football League) became the third division upon the creation of Super League Greece 2 and the old Gamma Ethniki became the Fourth Division, Rocha led Thesprotos to a safe tenth place position in a season that ended three matchdays before its scheduled conclusion due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team wouldn't play official games for quite some time as due to the second wave of COVID-19 in Greece the 2020-21 Football League season was postponed in October 2020 and the teams weren't allowed to participate in the 2020-21 edition of the Greek Football Cup, which for that year only was limited to Superleague teams.

Alas, on 27 March 2021, the team played its first game in almost 10 months and finished the season exactly three months later with a safe 6th place finish in their ten team North Group.

That summer, the Football League was finally dissolved and the Gamma Ethniki returned to Third Division status and Thesprotos qualified to the Super League Greece 2 for the first time in its history.

By this point, financial problems were surging and players had been getting lower wages, however Rocha pledged allegiance to the club and extended his stay with Thesprotos.

Wielding a squad with an average player age of 22.2 years old, Rocha led Thesprotos to a scrupulous first season in the Second Division.

In spite of only three wins in the last 20 games of the season, a crucial 3-0 win against Panserraikos three games before the end of the season was enough to keep Thesprotos in Super League Greece 2 for another season, finishing with 34 points in 32 games, 2 points above relegation, mostly thanks to a very strong start to the season that was hamstrung by injury and finance problems.