Alberto Mario Jorge Espósito (born 1 January 1950) is an Argentine association football manager and former player. He spent most of his career in Mexico, where he arrived in 1975 to play with León.
As a manager, he won a Primera División title with Tolucaascaretaker, coaching the team in the last four games of the tournament (the two legs of the playoffs semi-finals and the two legs of the final). Jorge is the only caretaker manager to have won a league title in the Liga MX so far.[2]
Jorge started his professional football career with Racing Club de Avellaneda in 1970 as a midfielder.[1] During his spell with Racing, Jorge played 167 matches and scored 39 goals. At some point, Jorge was considered by César Luis Menotti in his preliminar lists for the 1978 FIFA World Cup Argentine squad, despite this, knowing that his chances to make it to the World Cup were remote, he decided to continue his career in Mexico.[1]
Alberto Jorge arrived to Mexico in 1975, where he would spend most of his career as footballer. He first played for León from 1975 to 1980, a club that paid US$12,000 for his transfer.[3][4] In five seasons with the club, he played in 168 matches and scored 52 goals.[5]
Jorge then moved to Atlante, where he played from 1980 to 1982, having 44 appearances and scoring three goals.[6][7] He was part of the squad that were runners-up to UANL in the 1981–82 season.
For the Apertura 2002 tournament, Ricardo La Volpe was the manager of the club for the regular part of the tournament, but was called to manage Mexico national football team just before the beginning of the playoff round of the tournament. La Volpe's assistant coach, Wilson Graniolatti was then promoted to head coach.[2][12]
Claiming differences with Toluca's management after they tried to bring La Volpe back to the team, Graniolatti resigned as head coach after the quarterfinal round of the playoffs, despite winning and qualifying to the semi-final.[13] Alberto Jorge, then head of the Reserves and Academy was appointed as manager of the team for the semi-finals round of the tournament.[2][11]
Toluca won at the semi-finals and advanced to the final against Morelia, which they won, becoming champions of the Primera División. Managing Toluca for only four games (the two legs of the semi-final and two legs of the final), Alberto Jorge became the first caretaker manager, and as of today the only one, to win the Primera División title.[2]
Jorge arrived to Guatemalan football for the 2009–2010 season as manager of Club Xelajú MC.[15] He resigned from the position in March 2010 and was succeeded by Argentine Horacio Cordero.[16]
