Following the 1978 World Cup it became fashionable for English clubs to sign Argentine players. Sunderland AFC joined in when they paid a reported then club record £320,000 to Huracan for their midfield maestro Claudio Marangoni during the 1979/80 season. He notched his first goal for the club against Shrewsbury in December 1979. Plainly ill at ease in the old second division he left Sunderland 12 months later and the years since his departure saw him cast as a “failure” in England although few of the travelling Sunderland fans will forget his 40 yard piledriver at Fulham.

He went on to win 9 full Argentine caps. Marangoni played one season for Huracan before joining Club Atlético Independiente in 1982. He won three major titles with the club, the 1983 Metropolitano followed by the Copa Libertadores and Copa Intercontinental in 1984 (World Club Championship). In 1988 he left Independiente to join Boca Juniors where he won a further two international tournaments, the Supercopa Sudamericana 1989 and the Recopa Sudamericana 1990. Not bad for a “failure”.

Upon retirement, Marangoni start Escuela Modelo de Futbol y Deportes, the first-ever professional soccer schools and sports clinics for Argentina’s youth.