Although playing as a centre-back, Passarella was also a proficient goalscorer; at one point, he was football's highest-scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches, a record which was subsequently broken by Dutch player Ronald Koeman.

[6] In 2007, The Times placed him at 36th in their list of the 50 hardest footballers in history, recalling that he "tackled with the ferocity of the wild bull of the Pampas".

After his playing and coaching career, Passarella also served as the president of River Plate for four years, after winning the elections in December 2009.

During the qualifying rounds of the 1986 World Cup, Passarella contributed to the goal which ensured Argentina's qualification in the final minutes of their match against Peru by allowing teammate Ricardo Gareca to score.

He later claimed Bilardo and Maradona made certain that he was sidelined;[2] although he is the first and so far only player to feature in two Argentina World Cup–winning squads[citation needed], he did not play any of the matches in 1986, not even as a substitute.

As the Argentina team head, Passarella had appointed a close friend and a fellow 1978 world champion, Américo Gallego, as his assistant coach.

[14] Argentina's performances never reached the expected heights during the 1998 World Cup; the team was eliminated in the quarter-final after a last minute 2–1 defeat to the Netherlands.

Afterwards, Passarella had a brief and unsuccessful stint as the coach of Italian side Parma in 2001, where, despite success in the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia, he was ultimately sacked after losing all of his five matches in the league, with the club sitting in the relegation zone.

On 9 January 2006, he was appointed River Plate coach again after 12 years to occupy the vacancy left by Reinaldo Merlo's sudden departure.

In the summer of 2018, after publicly expressing interest in returning he was widely seen as the frontrunner to become the new manager of Monterrey for a second stint after the departure of Antonio Mohamed but the club ultimately decided to appoint Diego Alonso.