Pier Luigi Cherubino Loggi (born 15 October 1971), known simply as Pier, is a Spanish former professional

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 ...

who played as a striker, currently a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. Over ten seasons, he amassed

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

totals of 227 games and 54 goals in representation of four clubs, mainly

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

Playing career

Club

Born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, Pier was raised in

Puerto de la Cruz Puerto de la Cruz is a city and municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. It was formerly known by its English translation, "Port of the Cross", although now it is known by its Spanish name in all lang ...

, and made his professional debut with

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

's first team during the 1990–91 season. In 16

matches he scored one goal, in a 1–1 away draw against

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

on 6 January 1991, and would be relatively used in the subsequent campaigns, also appearing in the 1993–94 UEFA Cup. Pier would develop into a top-flight attacking player in 1994–95, with

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

, and in his two seasons at Betis, where he formidably teamed up with former

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

Alfonso Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

– the pair combined for 60 league goals from 1995 to 1997, finishing fourth in the latter season. After failing to produce at

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

, Pier returned to Tenerife, where he achieved a top-tier promotion when the team was coached by

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who most recently managed club Everton. Benítez joined Real Madrid's coaching staff at the age of 26, going on to work as the under-1 ...

, and also played for six months in

CF Extremadura Club de Fútbol Extremadura was a Spanish football team based in Almendralejo, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 1924, it played two seasons in La Liga, and held home games at ''Estadio Francisco de la Hera'', with a capaci ...

alongside former

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

great Kiko. Pier retired in 2007 at nearly 36, after three seasons in the lower leagues.

International

Pier made his debut (his only match) for the Spain national team on 12 October 1994, in an away

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

against Macedonia, coming on as a substitute for Julio Salinas who had scored both goals in a 2–0 win.

Coaching career

In October 2018, Pier was appointed at

UD Granadilla Tenerife Unión Deportiva Granadilla Tenerife, commonly shortened as UDG Tenerife, is a Spanish women's football club based in Granadilla de Abona, in the Canary Islands. The club plays in Liga F, holding home games at ''Estadio Francisco Suárez'', wit ...

of the Spanish

Primera División (women) The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's La Li ...

. He resigned the following May, having taken them to an all-time best fourth-place finish. On 29 December 2019, Pier returned to Betis by taking the helm of the women's team until the end of the season.

Honours

Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the compe ...

third place:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

References

External links

*
Betisweb stats and bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pier Luigi Cherubino 1971 births Living people Italian emigrants to Spain Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Rome Footballers from Puerto de la Cruz Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Tenerife players Sporting de Gijón players Real Betis players Real Zaragoza players CF Extremadura footballers Terrassa FC footballers RSD Alcalá players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's international footballers Spanish football managers Liga F managers Real Betis non-playing staff