José Cardozo

Personal information
Full name	José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú
Date of birth	March 19, 1971 (1971-03-19) (age 38)
Place of birth	Nueva Italia, Paraguay
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1988–1990	River Plate	26	(10)
1990–1992	FC St. Gallen	37	(15)
1992–1993	Universidad Católica	35	(11)
1994–1995	Olimpia	41	(27)
1995–2005	Toluca	332	(248)
2005–2006	San Lorenzo	23	(5)
Total		494	(316)
National team
1991–2006	Paraguay	83	(25)
Teams managed
2006–2007	Olimpia
Honours Competitor for  Paraguay Men's Football Silver 2004 Athens Team Competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú (born March 19, 1971 in Nueva Italia, Paraguay) is a former Paraguayan football striker.

[edit] Club career

Cardozo began his professional career in 1988, making his debut for River Plate of Paraguay. After four years in River, he moved to Swiss club FC St. Gallen, where he played from 1990 to 1992. He returned to South America in 1993, joining Universidad Católica de Chile helping the team reach the 1993 Copa Libertadores de América final. The following year he played for Club Olimpia of Paraguay, from which he moved to Club Toluca of Mexico.

Cardozo made his debut for Toluca in the 1995 season, but only appeared in three games, scoring no goals. However, in the subsequent winter season, he scored 7 goals in 13 games. In his eight years with the team, he has scored a record 249 goals for the club, including 14 in the 2004 Apertura.

Due to his work at Toluca, Cardozo was elected as the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year in the years 2000, 2002 and 2003; and the South American Footballer of the Year in 2002. Despite the fact that he was fiercely opposed to the move, Cardozo was transferred to Argentine team San Lorenzo de Almagro in June, 2005 and finished the season with only 4 goals due to injuries that kept him away from playing several games. However, many critics lambasted Cardozo for refusing to play through the pain. It should be noted that while playing for Toluca, Cardozo fought through the 1997 campaign despite hamstring problems and then played through much of the 2001 season despite suffering a broken wrist in the season opener.Cardozo is the all-time leading scorer for Club Toluca. He is a legend and is known as "El Diablo Mayor" which means the Senior Devil coming from the terms Diablos Rojos (Red Devils).

In July 2006, Cardozo attempted to return to the club he is a fan from, Club Olimpia to finish his career but was unable to play for the club because the signing deadline for players in the Paraguayan league had expired. Due to that he decided to retire from football. He scored 342 goals total in his career. In June 2008 a farewell match was organized in the city of Toluca to honor his career and contributions to football. Cardozo scored two goals in the match which had a sellout crowd. ^[1]

[edit] Paraguay national team

Cardozo is the all-time leading scorer for the Paraguayan national team with 25 goals^[2]. He played for his country at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups and was named in the original 2006 World Cup squad, but he was injured during training sessions and replaced by Dante López. Cardozo was also an over-age player at the 2004 Summer Olympics, when Paraguay finished second. He scored a hat-trick against Uruguay in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, with the final result being 4-1.

[edit] Coaching career

In November 2006, Club Olimpia's coach Oscar Paulin was fired due to poor performances by the team and Cardozo was named as the interim coach of the Paraguayan club, this being his first experience as a coach. He coached for the remainder of the year and for the 2007 Apertura tournament.

After that in October of 2009 he was hired to be an Auxiliar coach for the team of Indios de Juarez for the Apertura 2009^[3]

He came back to Olimpia in November of 2009 due to coach Carlos Kiese quiting his position after a disagreement with the board of directors. The main reason being the hiring of chilean Fitness coach Marcelo Oyarzun

[edit] Titles

• U-23 South American Champion: 1992 (with Paraguay)
• Copa Libertadores de América finalist: 1993 (with Universidad Catolica), 2001 (with Cruz Azul)
• Paraguayan League: 1993 (with Olimpia)
• Mexican Champion: Verano 1998, Verano 1999, Verano 2000, Apertura 2002 (with Toluca)
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2003 (with Toluca)
• Silver medal at the Olympics: 2004 (with Paraguay)

[edit] Awards

• Mexican League Topscorer: 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003
• FIFA World Topscorer of the Year: 2003 (with 58 goals)
• Paraguayan Footballer of the Year: 2000, 2002, 2003
• South American Footballer of the Year: 2002
• All-time scorer for the Paraguayan national team and for Club Toluca

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• International statistics at rsssf
• José Cardozo at National-Football-Teams.com
• José Cardozo stats at MedioTiempo.com (Spanish)
• Argentine Primera statistics

Paraguay squads v • d • e Paraguay squad – 1991 Copa América 1 Chilavert • 2 Barrios • 3 Cristaldo • 4 Suárez • 5 Rivarola • 6 Sanabria • 7 Neffa • 8 Guirland • 9 Cardozo • 10 Monzón • 11 González • 12 Ruiz Díaz • 13 Martínez • 14 Jacquet • 15 Struway • 16 Sanabria • 17 Genés • 18 Romero • 19 Alvarenga • 20 Zabala • 21 Yegros • 22 Peralta • Coach: Kiese v • d • e Paraguay squad – 1995 Copa América 1 Ruiz Díaz • 2 Suárez • 3 Jara • 4 Villamayor • 5 Gamarra • 6 Ayala • 7 Báez • 8 Struway • 9 Cardozo • 10 Acuña • 11 Campos • 12 Battaglia • 13 Peralta • 14 Ortíz • 15 Enciso • 16 Arce • 17 Sotelo • 18 Denis • 19 Esteche • 20 Samaniego • 21 Sarabia • 22 Aceval • Coach: Kubala v • d • e Paraguay squad – 1997 Copa América 1 Chilavert • 2 Arce • 3 Ayala • 4 Espínola • 5 Gamarra • 6 Struway • 7 Ovelar • 8 Brizuela • 9 Cardozo • 10 Acuña • 11 Jara • 12 Sotelo • 13 Alcaraz • 14 R. Rojas • 15 Sarabia • 16 Villamayor • 17 Bourdier • 18 A. Rojas • 19 Gómez • 20 Soto • 21 Esteche • 22 Ruiz Díaz • Coach: Carpegiani v • d • e Paraguay squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Chilavert • 2 Arce • 3 Rivarola • 4 Gamarra • 5 Ayala • 6 Aguilera • 7 Yegros • 8 A. Rojas • 9 Cardozo • 10 Acuña • 11 Sarabia • 12 Aceval • 13 Paredes • 14 R. Rojas • 15 Benítez • 16 Enciso • 17 Brizuela • 18 Ramírez • 19 Morales • 20 Caniza • 21 Campos • 22 Ruiz Díaz • Coach: Carpegiani v • d • e Paraguay squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Chilavert • 2 Arce • 3 Sarabia • 4 Gamarra • 5 Ayala • 6 Struway • 7 Báez • 8 Alvarenga • 9 Santa Cruz • 10 Acuña • 11 Campos • 12 Villar • 13 Paredes • 14 Gavilán • 15 Bonet • 16 Morínigo • 17 Franco • 18 Cáceres • 19 Sanabria • 20 Cardozo • 21 Caniza • 22 Tavarelli • 23 Cuevas • Coach: Maldini