Osvaldo Ardiles underwent heart surgery and remains hospitalized in London

It is not an easy week for Osvaldo Ardiles, the 69-year-old former Argentine footballer who has been living in London for a long time. Ossie, as they know him on British territory, had to undergo heart surgery and remains hospitalized, according to Tottenham Hotspur, an English club that has him as one of its greatest idols and also as an ambassador to the world.

“The club would like to express its best wishes to our ambassador and former legendary player Osvaldo Ardiles, who successfully underwent heart surgery this week and is now recovering in hospital. We wish you a speedy recovery, Ossie! ”, said the Spurs social media post.

Ardiles, who was world champion with the Argentine National Team in 1978, is one of Tottenham's most important personalities: there he played 311 matches and scored 25 goals, helping the club win twice the FA Cup (1981 and 1982) and a UEFA Cup (1984).

Once his playing career was over, which he closed in 1991 with the Swindon Town jersey, he became a DT and also had a brief stint coaching the Spurs at the start of the 1993/94 Premier League season. He is considered one of the big names of the team that is based in North London.

A little over a year ago, Ossie Ardiles had commented on her social media profiles that she had suffered the worst symptoms of coronavirus. “Very happy to be able to tell you that I have recovered from Covid-19. I tested positive on January 1 and from there it has been a very big fight with this horrible virus,” he wrote on Twitter in mid-January 2021.

Along with Ricardo Villa, another player who won Argentina in the 1978 World Cup, they had to leave the club in 1982 after the harassment they suffered by other football fans in England at the start of the Malvinas war. At that time, Ardiles went on loan to Paris Saint-Germain but returned a couple of seasons later to obtain the last continental success in the club's history.

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