Juan José Pizzuti (9 May 1927 – 24 January 2020) was an Argentine

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 ...

player and manager. A striker, he enjoyed his most notable successes as player and manager with

Racing Club de Avellaneda Racing Club () is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Avellaneda, Argentina. They compete in the Argentine Primera División, Primera División, the top tier of Argentine football league system, Argentine f ...

. 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 Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

, 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 in

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

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

Titles as a player

Racing *

Primera División Argentina 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 Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

Boca Juniors *

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

Argentina *

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

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 Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

of Uruguay in the 1967

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

. Racing Club then added to their international success by defeating

Celtic F.C. The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a professional Association football, football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football league system, Scottish ...

of Scotland to win the

Copa Intercontinental Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

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 Brazil Independence Cup was an international association football, football tournament held in Brazil, from 11 June to 9 July 1972, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence. It was called the ''Minicopa' ...

. 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 (association football), football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their ...

in Colombia amongst other positions.

Titles as a manager

Racing *

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

* Intercontinental Cup: 1967

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pizzuti, Juan Jose 1927 births 2020 deaths Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers Men's 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 Club Atlético Nueva Chicago managers Independiente Medellín managers Copa América–winning players Club Atlético Colón managers Copa Libertadores–winning managers 20th-century Argentine sportsmen