Juan Antonio Pizzi

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Juan Antonio Pizzi Torroja (born June 7, 1968 in Santa Fe, Argentina) is a retired professional football (soccer) striker who played in different teams of Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and for Spain.

He started playing in Rosario Central, where he stayed 2 successful seasons before transferring to Mexico's Toluca. After only one season in Mexico he moved to CD Tenerife, where he played from 1991 to 1996, except for the 1993/1994 season when he played for Valencia CF.

Pizzi played between 1994 and 1998 22 matches for the Spain scoring 8 goals, including one match at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

During the 1995/1996 season, while playing for CD Tenerife, he won the Pichichi with 31 goals in 41 matches, and obtained the European Golden Boot.

After the successful season with CD Tenerife, he transferred to FC Barcelona, and even though he only played 2 seasons with in the Catalonian team, with less goals than with Tenerife, he became very popular among the Culé fans.

With Barcelona he won the Supercopa de España in 1996, the European Super Cup and Copa del Rey in 1997, and in 1998 again the Copa del Rey, and his only La Liga title.

Perhaps the most remembered accomplishment by Barcelona's fans was the decisive goal in the 5:4 victory over Atlético Madrid for the Quarter final match of the Copa del Rey, after a negative half time score of 0:3.

After the 1998 Spanish title, he came back to Argentina to play for River Plate, and then to his first team: Rosario Central. Back to Europe, he played only 11 matches with Portuguese FC Porto before he retired from professional football. After his retirement, he played Polo in Catalonian Cerdanyola del Vallés.

Together with Peruvian Jose Del Solar, Pizzi coached Argentine first division's Colón de Santa Fe at the beginning of the Clausura 2005, but they were laid off after 3 losses in the first 3 matches.

On April 13, 2006 he became the coach of Deportivo San Martin, in the Peruvian first division.

[edit] Career

Season	Club	Games	Goals
1988/89	Rosario Central	26	12
1989/90	Rosario Central	31	15
1990/91	Toluca	N/D	N/D
1991/92	Tenerife	34	15
1992/93	Tenerife	34	15
1993/94	Valencia	19	4
1994/95	Tenerife	32	15
1995/96	Tenerife	41	31
1996/97	Barcelona	33	9
1997/98	Barcelona	15	3
1998/99	River Plate	17	6
1999/00	Rosario Central	28	19
2000/01	Porto	11	3

[edit] External links

Pizzi's Club Statistics
Pizzi's Spanish national team Statistics
Pizzi File (Spanish)
[1] (Spanish)

	Spain squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Zubizarreta \| 2 Ferrer \| 3 Aranzábal \| 4 Alkorta \| 5 Abelardo \| 6 Hierro \| 7 Morientes \| 8 Guerrero \| 9 Pizzi \| 10 Raúl \| 11 Alfonso \| 12 Sergi \| 13 Cañizares \| 14 Campo \| 15 Aguilera \| 16 Celades \| 17 Etxeberria \| 18 Amor \| 19 Kiko \| 20 Nadal \| 21 Luis Enrique \| 22 Molina \| Coach: Clemente