Veteran Spain coach Luis Aragones has made himself one of the most controversial personalities in both the Spanish and the world game.

Aragones will be almost 68 years old when the World Cup finals kick off this summer, older than any other national coach at the tournament in Germany.

However, as he has shown and despite his nickname as 'the wise man of Horteleza' (the Madrid neighbourhood where he was born), Aragones is far from being a gentle 'grandfather' figure.

The popular choice with the Spanish press after the departure of Inaki Saez following Spain's disappointing first-round exit at Euro 2004, Aragones brought with him a wealth of experience as both a coach and as a player.

He scored 160 goals in 360 Primera Liga matches as a player and when he swapped the pitch for the dug-out, he sat there on 757 occasions in the top flight.

Aragones made his name playing for Atletico Madrid, where he was one of the toughest strikers around.

He earned himself 11 Spain caps, scoring three goals between his debut against Scotland in 1965 and his final appearance against Hungary in 1972.

Two years later he helped lead Atletico to the European Cup final, where despite his goal from a free-kick they could not prevent Bayern Munich lifting the title.

Ten years as an Atletico player, to which have to be added spells with Real Madrid, Recreativo Huelva, Oviedo and Real Betis put him in the perfect position to take the step into coaching and he did that after 10 weeks of the following season after Atletico had sacked Juan Carlos Lorenzo.

It was to be the beginning of an on-off love affair with the Atletico Madrid dugout.

He won the Copa del Rey in 1976 and a year later guided Atletico to the Primera Liga title, only to abandon the club 12 months later.

It proved to be a short divorce as the lure of the Vicente Calderon stadium proved too strong for him to resist and he returned at the start of the 1979-80 season, although this time poor results saw him fail to finish the campaign.

That saw Aragones begin an odyssey which would make him without doubt the most experienced coach in Spain and which also saw him return to several of the clubs he had represented as a player.

After leaving Atletico, he coached Betis for a year before returning to Madrid's second side for a second time. This spell lasted four and a half years and saw Atletico win another cup final and the Spanish Supercup.

He won another cup in 1988 as he led Barcelona to the title after replacing Terry Venables at the Nou Camp.

A year's sabbatical ended when he joined Espanyol before returning to Atletico Madrid for a third time, although with the explosive Jesus Gil in charge a falling out was bound to happen sooner or later. The fact it was two years in coming surprised everyone.

The axe fell in 1993 and Aragones went to Sevilla, turning them into a side capable of qualifying for Europe. He then joined Valencia and turned them into title challengers, although his spell at the club was marred by his terrible relationship with Brazilian striker Romario, which was most attributed to his refusal to accept Romario's recreational habits.

On leaving Valencia he spent another season with Betis, moving on to Oviedo then Mallorca, who he guided into the Champions League.

At Mallorca he worked with young Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o and despite one famous incident where Aragones grabbed him by the collar after an untoward word in the dugout, Eto'o, now of course a hero at Barcelona, still cites Aragones as the man who helped him become the global star he now is.

Aragones drove his sides hard and it is maybe unsurprising that his last four clubs all suffered the season after he left, with Betis and Oviedo both being relegated and Mallorca going close to the drop.

His swansong as a club coach was back with Atletico, who he took up from the second division and helped re-establish in Spain's top flight.

However, that last season in the Primera Liga implied he was losing his touch, as he habitually tinkered with his team, making changes early in the second half of every game. However, he was the natural choice to replace Saez and was swept in on a powerful press campaign.

The strength of the press support for Aragones made it hard for them to criticise him too much after he made his by now infamous racist remarks about Thierry Henry during a training session.

Outside of Spain, it is that comment, his refusal to apologise and further comments about England's colonial past that have brought him into the spotlight and led to his ability to represent his country being questioned as racist incidents have regularly marred Spanish football since.

Spain needed a play-off against unfancied Slovakia to qualify for this summer and their group campaign saw them fail to score away to Lithuania, Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

It would be fair to say that apart from the notorious friendly against England, which was marred by the racist behaviour of the Spanish fans, Aragones has yet to lead Spain to victory over a really important side.

Whether he will be able to do so will become clear in June.