Ángel Antonio Berni Gómez (9 January 1931 – 24 November 2017) was a

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

striker. He was part of Paraguay’s squads for the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the 4th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. It was the first Wo ...

and the

1953 South American Championship The South American Championship 1953 was a football tournament held in Peru and won by Paraguay with Brazil second. Argentina, and Colombia withdrew from the tournament. Francisco Molina from Chile became top scorer of the tournament with 7 go ...

, the latter of which being won by

Club career

Berni started his career at the youth divisions of

Olimpia Asunción Club Olimpia is a Paraguayan professional sports club based in the city of Asunción. It promotes the practice of various sports, with most importance given to the football, rugby and basketball sides, football being the most successful. Fou ...

in 1945, and in 1949 he made the debut for Olimpia's first team. In 1951 he was transferred to

Boca Juniors de Cali Boca Juniors de Cali is a professional football club which represented the Colombian city of Cali from its creation in 1937 until its exit from professional football in 1957 and again from 2019 onwards competing in the Categoría Primera B, the ...

and later on played for

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

clubs

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

(where he became the top scorer for the 1954 season with 29 goals) and

Gimnasia y Esgrima de 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 ...

. His last club was

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

International career

Berni was part of the Paraguay squad at the

1950 World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the 4th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. It was the first World Cup tournament in ...

but was an unused substitute and played neither of Paraguay’s 2 games against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. He also competed in the 1953 Copa América tournament which was won by Paraguay, playing the whole 7 games and scoring 4 goals. Those were his only caps and goals with

References

Profile at FranjanegraJugadores de San Lorenzo
1931 births 2017 deaths Footballers from Asunción Paraguayan men's footballers Paraguay men's international footballers 1950 FIFA World Cup players Club Olimpia footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata footballers Real Betis players Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Paraguayan expatriate men's footballers Argentine Primera División players Categoría Primera A players Copa América–winning players Men's association football forwards {{Paraguay-footy-forward-stub