Juan José Pizzuti (9 May 1927 – 24 January 2020) was an Argentine football player and manager. A striker, he enjoyed his most notable successes as player and manager with

Racing Club de Avellaneda Racing Club de Avellaneda, officially known as Racing Club or shortened to just Racing, is an Argentine professional sports club based in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1903, Racing has been historically considered o ...

. Pizzuti was born in the Barracas neighbourhood of Buenos Aires and joined the Banfield youth team at the age of 14.

Playing career

Pizzuti made his breakthrough into the Banfield first team in 1947 at the age of 19. He became the top scorer in the Argentine league in 1949, this brought him to the attention of several major clubs and he eventually signed for River Plate in 1951. In 1952, after only one season with River, Pizzuti left to join

, he became the topscorer in the Argentine league for a second time in 1953. In 1955 Pizzuti joined Boca Juniors, making him one of a select band of players to have played for both River Plate and Boca Juniors, he only played 20 games that season and returned to Racing Club in 1956. Pizzuti was part of a championship winning team for the first time in 1958, and Racing won the title again in 1961. Pizzuti then returned to Boca Juniors where he won his third and last league title as a player in 1962. He retired as a player in 1963, by the end of his career he had scored a total of 182 goals in 349 games, to make him one of the top 20 all time goalscorers in the Argentine league.

International career

Pizzuti played for Argentina between 1951 and 1959, he was part of the squad for the

South American Championship A South American Championship is a top level international sports competition between South American athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships * ATP Buenos Aires, a tenni ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

where he scored three goals to help them to win the title.

Titles as a player

Managerial career

Pizzuti took over as the manager of Racing Club in 1965, he led them to the Argentine league championship in 1966 and then saw his team defeat Nacional of Uruguay in the 1967 Copa Libertadores. Racing Club then added to their international success by defeating

Celtic F.C. The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

of Scotland to win the

Copa Intercontinental The European/South American Cup, more commonly known as the Intercontinental Cup and from 1980 to 2004 as the Toyota European/South American Cup (abbreviated as Toyota Cup) for sponsorship reasons, was an international football competition end ...

and become the first Argentine team to become club champions of the world. Pizzuti left Racing Club in 1969 after four years and four months in charge, which still stands as the longest managerial reign at the club.Clarin article
/ref> Pizzuti was manager of the Argentina national team between 1970 and 1972, taking the team to fourth place at the Brazilian Independence Cup. The third place decider there, which Argentina lost 2-4 to Yugoslavia, was his last match at the helm of the national side. He had spells as manager of Nueva Chicago in Argentina and

Independiente Medellín Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as Independiente Medellín or DIM, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at Estadio Atanasio Girardo ...

in Colombia amongst other positions.

Titles as a manager

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pizzuti, Juan Jose 1927 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine footballers Argentina international footballers Association football forwards Club Atlético Banfield footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Boca Juniors footballers Argentine Primera División players Argentine football managers Argentina national football team managers Racing Club de Avellaneda managers Nueva Chicago managers Independiente Medellín managers Copa América-winning players Club Atlético Colón managers