Walter Gerardo Pandiani Urquiza (born 27 April 1976) is an Uruguayan
football 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 ...
and former player who played as a
striker. He is the current manager of
Albion.
His performances for
Peñarol
Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...
earned him a move to
Deportivo in Spain, where he remained for the vast majority of his career, also representing
Mallorca,
Espanyol
Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...
(twice) and
Osasuna. He also spent a year with
Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...
in England.
Over 12 seasons, Pandiani 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' ...
totals of 279 games and 82 goals.
Playing career
Early years and Deportivo
Born in
Montevideo, Pandiani started his career with hometown club
Progreso, moving on to
Basáñez
Club Atlético Basáñez is a football and boxing club from Montevideo in Uruguay founded in 1920. They currently play in the Second Amateur Division, the third and last tier of the Uruguayan championship.
The club is named after Tomas Basá ...
and
Peñarol
Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...
, the latter also in the country's capital. In December 1999 he agreed terms to join
Deportivo La Coruña
''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to:
* Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club
* Déportivo, a French rock band
* Deportivo (Mexicable)
Mexicable is a aerial lift line in Ecatepec de Mo ...
as a replacement for his compatriot
Sergio Martínez, and the move was officially completed the following January when he signed a five-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee, still remaining with Peñarol until the end of the season.
Pandiani made his debut for the Spaniards on 27 August 2000, coming
from the bench for
Diego Tristán in a
2–0 win over
Espanyol
Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...
at
Estadio Riazor
Estadio Municipal de Riazor (), also known as Estadio ABANCA-RIAZOR for sponsorship reasons, is an all-seater stadium in A Coruña, Spain. The stadium is the home of Deportivo de La Coruña, and accommodates a total of 32,660 spectators, making ...
in the
Supercopa de España return match.
Despite never being an undisputed starter for the
Galician team he was one of their most important attacking elements, often scoring as a substitute, netting 13 goals during the
2003–04 season.
[
Pandiani, who had a successful loan stint at Mallorca while still at Depor, moved to ]Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...
in the Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
, also on loan, in January 2005, after a series of run-ins with coach Javier Irureta
Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano (born 1 April 1948), Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired football attacking midfielder and manager.
He had a distinguished playing career with Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, playing in 344 La Liga ga ...
. He scored a goal on his debut against Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
in a 2–1 home win, and went on to score three more in the season, prompting manager Steve Bruce to sign him on a permanent contract for a reported fee of £3 million.
During his time at Deportivo, Pandiani bought a big red truck which he drove to training, a type of vehicle that he is a fan of, which he kept while at Deportivo, Espanyol and Osasuna. He personalised it with his nickname "El Rifle", a Uruguayan flag, and the emblems of his club and Uruguayan club Peñarol
Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...
.
Espanyol
Having failed to continue to display his previous form, Pandiani returned to Spain on 13 January 2006, after completing a move to Espanyol for £1 million.
In his first full season he scored only seven 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' ...
goals, including a first-half hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
against eventual champions Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...
, but was top scorer in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup with eleven as his club reached the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
, which they lost on penalties to Sevilla
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
.[
During his time at Espanyol, Pandiani, and Barcelona's ]José Manuel Pinto
José Manuel Pinto Colorado (born 8 November 1975) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
After making a name for himself at Celta, with which he made his La Liga debut, he signed for Barcelona in 2008, going o ...
, drove in the 2011 Barcelona "Monster Jam
Monster Jam is a live motorsport event tour operated by Feld Entertainment. The series began in 1992, and is sanctioned under the umbrella of the United States Hot Rod Association. Events are primarily held in North America, with some additiona ...
" monster truck
A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses. Originally created by modifying stock p ...
event.
Osasuna
For 2007–08, Pandiani joined Osasuna. Scarcely used in his first year, he was instrumental for the Navarrese in the following campaign, especially after the arrival in mid-October of coach José Antonio Camacho
José Antonio Camacho Alfaro (; born 8 June 1955) is a Spanish former football left-back and manager.
He spent 15 professional years at Real Madrid, appearing in more than 500 official matches with the team and helping win 19 major titles, inc ...
, finishing as the club's top scorer.
Osasuna's first goal of the 2010–11 season only came in the fourth matchday, and the 34-year-old Pandiani scored it through a header as the team came from behind to win it 3–1 against Real Sociedad, at home. On 30 January 2011, during half-time
In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...
of a 1–0 home win against Real Madrid, he was involved in a "verbal spat" with Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...
, suggesting afterwards that "As a footballer he is a phenomenon but to do the things he does, maybe he has a screw loose."
Later career
The 35-year-old Pandiani returned to Espanyol for 2011–12, signing a one-year contract and acting mainly as backup to youth graduate Álvaro Vázquez. On 22 September he came from the bench to score the game's only goal at home against Getafe
Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality.
Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...
, in stoppage time. On 27 October he repeated the feat, albeit not so late in the game, with a powerful header at home to 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 ...
.
In late August 2012, Pandiani signed a one-year contract with Segunda División club Villarreal
Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain.
The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...
, where his 18-year-old son Nico
Naftiran Intertrade Company limited (NICO) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. NICO is a key pl ...
was a C-team player. On his debut, at home to Guadalajara on 2 September, he entered the game as a second-half substitute and scored the winning goal, and did the same the following week in another narrow win, at Ponferradina.
In late January 2013, Pandiani and Nico left Villarreal and joined Atlético Baleares of the Segunda División B. They both started in Nico's second senior match, and Pandiani scored in the 2–1 defeat away to Sant Andreu
Sant Andreu () is one of the ten districts of Barcelona since its redistricting in 1984. It was named after the former municipality of Sant Andreu de Palomar, which was the largest in the area and now makes up the bulk of the neighbourhood be ...
on 12 May.
In October 2013, the pair returned to Uruguay and signed for Primera División club Miramar Misiones
Club Sportivo Miramar Misiones, usually known simply as Miramar Misiones is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. The club was formed from the merger of two clubs: Miramar (founded on October 17, 1915) and Misiones (founded on March 26 ...
. Pandiani scored three times in the six remaining matches of the 2013–14 Apertura, as his team finished next to bottom, and played regularly during the Clausura but scored only twice as they repeated their previous finish, which contributed to relegation.
Pandiani returned to the Barcelona area where he spent the 2014–15 season coaching junior teams at Masnou, where two of his sons played. He said that although he had always wanted to coach, he still thought of himself as a player and was open to offers; in June 2015, he signed for Lausanne-Sport of the Swiss Challenge League, with the remit of supervising and teaching the tricks of the trade to the 15-year-old striker Andi Zeqiri, who had already made his first-team debut. The Swiss club managed to climb to the first division in 2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
and be the oldest scorer in the history of Swiss football, a record held by the Argentine Walter Samuel
Walter Adrián Samuel (; born Walter Adrián Luján; 23 March 1978) is an Argentine former professional footballer. Samuel has been regarded as one of the best centre-backs of his generation, and as one of football's toughest defenders, with ...
.
Pandiani announced his retirement on 16 June 2016 after a 23-year professional career, at the age of 40. After he retired, his truck was auctioned in Barcelona with 518,000 miles on the clock.[
]
International career
Despite his relatively successful career in Spain, Pandiani only received four caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...
for Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
, the first coming on 28 March 2001 in a 1–0 home defeat against Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers.
Managerial career
Pandiani returned to Masnou after retiring, now as a first-team manager. Sacked on 2 November 2016, he was appointed at the helm of Europa's ''Juvenil A'' squad on 13 December.
On 27 June 2017, Pandiani was named manager of Hospitalet's youth squad. Two years later, he was given his first senior managerial job at Lorca in the Tercera División
Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the '' Segunda División'', and the semi-professional '' Segunda ...
. He left on 30 December 2019, with the team in seventh place.
Following a spell at Dibba Al-Hisn
Dibba Al-Hisn ( ar, دبا الحصن, ''white Dibba'') is a List of enclaves and exclaves#Subnational pene-enclaves/exclaves (inaccessible districts), pene-exclave of the emirate of Sharjah (emirate), Al-Sharjah, one of the seven United Arab Emi ...
in the United Arab Emirates, where he signed his son Axel, Pandiani was hired at Cerro in the Uruguayan Segunda División
Segunda División Profesional is the second division of professional football in Uruguay, established in 1942. The league is sometimes referred to as ''Primera B''. Segunda División was first held in 1942 to replace amateur Divisional Intermed ...
in June 2021. He lost in the promotion playoffs to Defensor
Defensor (Latin, 'one who defends') may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Defensor (comics), a character in ''Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions''
* Defensor (''Transformers''), a character in the media franchise
People
*Defensor, a ...
in his first season and was sacked in July 2022 with the team in fourth.
On 27 July 2022, Pandiani signed for Cerrito, in last place in the top flight. He was fired on 30 August after taking two points from five games.
On 20 December 2022, Pandiani was announced as the new manager of Albion for the 2023 season.
Style of play
Nicknamed ''El Rifle'' (the rifle), Pandiani's best assets were his strength and aerial ability.
Career statistics
International
:Source:
Honours
Peñarol
*Uruguayan Primera División
The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , en, First Division Professional League, local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional football league in Uru ...
: 1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
Deportivo
*Copa del Rey
The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...
: 2001–02
* Supercopa de España: 2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
,[ 2002
Mallorca
*Copa del Rey: 2002–03
Espanyol
*Copa del Rey: 2005–06]
*UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
runner-up: 2006–07[
Lausanne
* Swiss Challenge League: 2015–16
]
References
External links
*
Deportivo archives
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandiani, Walter
1976 births
Living people
Footballers from Montevideo
Uruguayan footballers
Association football forwards
Uruguayan Primera División players
C.A. Progreso players
Peñarol players
Miramar Misiones players
La Liga players
Segunda División players
Segunda División B players
Deportivo de La Coruña players
RCD Mallorca players
RCD Espanyol footballers
CA Osasuna players
Villarreal CF players
CD Atlético Baleares footballers
Premier League players
Birmingham City F.C. players
Swiss Challenge League players
FC Lausanne-Sport players
Uruguay international footballers
Uruguayan expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Spain
Expatriate footballers in England
Expatriate footballers in Switzerland
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in England
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland
Uruguayan football managers
C.A. Cerro managers
Club Sportivo Cerrito managers
Tercera División managers
Lorca FC managers
Uruguayan expatriate football managers
Expatriate football managers in Spain
Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates
Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates