Alfredo Oscar Graciani (6 January 1965 – 21 April 2021) was an Argentine

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He played for a number of clubs in Argentina and also played in Switzerland and Venezuela at the end of his playing career. He had a successful career at

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, having played 250 matches for the club, and winning two titles.Murió Alfredo Graciani
on TyC Sports, 21 Apr 2021

Nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

d ''Alfil'' ("

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

" in

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

, due to his diagonal movements on the pitch) and ''Bat'', Graciani is ranked 14th. among the all-time leading scorers for Boca Juniors.

Career

Graciani started his playing career in the youth divisions of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, where his brother Néstor also played. He made his debut with the senior squad in 1981 v

Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (; ''La Plata Gymnastics and Fencing Club''), also known simply as Gimnasia, is an Argentine professional sports club based in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1887 as "Club de Gimnasia ...

in Primera B, the second division of Argentine football by then. Atlanta coach

Luis Artime Luis Artime (born 2 December 1938) is an Argentine former footballer, who played as a striker, and scored more than 1,000 goals during his career. His son Luis Fabián Artime is also a retired Argentine footballer who played in the 1990s. Club ...

sent him to the field on 80' substituting Carlos Landaburo. In 1983, Graciani was part of the team that won the Primera B championship promoting to

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

. During his career at Atlanta, Graciani played a total of 89 matches, scoring 18 goals.Dolor en Boca: murió Alfredo Graciani
on Olé, 21 Apr 2021 Graciani was also called-up for the Argentina u20 team that played in the 1983 South American championship, qualifying for the 1983 World Championship where he was part of the roster. In 1984 Graciani was signed by

, where he went on to become their leading goalscorer of the 1980s, winning two international titles with the club, the

1989 Supercopa Libertadores The 1989 Supercopa Libertadores was the second edition of the Supercopa Libertadores, CONMEBOL's new international football club tournament. The competition was won by Boca Juniors, who clinched their first title by beating fellow Argentinian side, ...

and

1990 Recopa Sudamericana The 1990 Recopa Sudamericana was the second Recopa Sudamericana, an annual football match between the winners of the previous season's Copa Libertadores and Supercopa Sudamericana competitions. Originally, the title was supposed to be disputed on ...

. In 1992 Graciani joined

Racing Club Racing Club may refer to: Football * Racing Club Abidjan, Ivory Coast * K.R.C. Genk, Belgium * Racing Club Bafoussam, Cameroon * Racing Club Beirut, Lebanon * Racing Club de Avellaneda, Argentina * Racing Club Haïtien, Haiti * Racing Club Port ...

but returned to Boca Juniors in 1993. By the end of his Boca Juniors career he had played 250 games for the club in all competitions, scoring 83 goals.Alfredo Graciani statistics
on Bocampeon web (archived, 24 Mar 2008) In 1994 Graciani played for

Deportivo Español Club Social, Deportivo y Cultural Español de la República Argentina (commonly referred to as Deportivo Español) is an Argentine sports club from the Parque Avellaneda district of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, wh ...

before dropping down a division to play for

Atlético Tucumán Club Atlético Tucumán (mostly known as Atlético Tucumán) is an Argentinian football club based in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán of Tucumán Province. Although several sports are practised at the club, Atlético is mostly known for its fo ...

and then

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of the ...

in the

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, in English "National B Division", and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 37 tea ...

. Three years later, he was signed by Swiss club

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

, finishing his career playing for Venezuelan club

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

in 1998.Alfredo Graciani: "Feliz de haber hecho la trayectoria que hice en el fútbol argentino."
interview on LT3 Rosario, 27 Sep 2020 After retirement as a player, Graciani went on to work as a football coach, being part of the coaching staff at Boca under

Jorge José Benítez Jorge José Benítez (born 3 June 1950 in Gobernador Castro, Buenos Aires Province) is an Argentine former football player and coach. Nicknamed ''El Chino'' ("The Chinese"), Benítez started his career in Racing Club in 1969; in 1973 he was tr ...

during the 2004–05 season. Graciani died from a cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires on 21 April 2021.

Titles

;Atlanta * Primera B: 1983 ;Boca Juniors *

Supercopa Libertadores The Supercopa Libertadores (English: ''Libertadores Supercup''), also known as the Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a Association football, football club competition contested annually betw ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana ( pt, CONMEBOL Recopa Sul-Americana), known also as the Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as the Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club association football, football compe ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

;Argentinos Juniors *

: 1996–97

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graciani, Alfredo 1965 births 2021 deaths Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine footballers Argentina youth international footballers Argentina under-20 international footballers Association football forwards Club Atlético Atlanta footballers Boca Juniors footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Deportivo Español footballers Atlético Tucumán footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers Caracas FC players FC Lugano players Argentine Primera División players Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Venezuela Expatriate footballers in Venezuela