Bilardo achieved worldwide renown as a player with Estudiantes de La Plata in the 1960s, and as the manager of the Argentina side that won the 1986 FIFA World Cup and came close to retaining the title in 1990, where they reached the final.

Bilardo was a promising prospect in the youth divisions of major Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo de Almagro, and he was drafted to the junior Argentina national football team that obtained the 1959 Pan-American title and took part in the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome.

[3] In 1961, Bilardo was transferred to second-division side Deportivo Español, where he became the team's top scorer, but he slowly gravitated to the position of defensive midfielder.

After graduating as a physician (together with fellow player Raúl Horacio Madero), Bilardo retired from play and accepted the job of Estudiantes coach in 1971.

Bilardo's scheme was based on Zubeldía's tactics, and its attacking might (fueled by players like Sabella, Trobbiani, Gottardi and Ponce) earned the attention of the media—and of the top brass of the Argentine Football Association, who offered him to manage the Argentina national team.

Bilardo wrote a book called "Así Ganamos" ("How we won", Editorial Sudamericana Planeta) retelling the story of Argentina's 1986 FIFA World Cup win.

Within that season, results improved, and several young players were promoted to the first team, including José Ernesto Sosa, who would later help Estudiantes become a contender; three years later, the team won the League title under coach Diego Simeone, and in 2009 Estudiantes won the Copa Libertadores again, with Bilardo attending the final in Belo Horizonte and receiving a gift from coach Sabella—his "lucky" beige coat.

A new generation of Bilardo-influenced coaches has taken over many key positions in Argentine and South American football: Brown, Pumpido, Burruchaga, Batista, Russo, and Maradona.