José Cardozo

Football player infobox| playername= José Cardozo


fullname = José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1971|3|19
cityofbirth = Nueva Italia
countryofbirth = Paraguay
height = height|meters=1.83
position = Striker
currentclub = Retired
clubnumber =
years = 1988–1990
1990–1992
1992–1993
1994–1995
1995–2005
2005–2006
clubs = River Plate
FC St. Gallen
Universidad Católica
Olimpia
Toluca
San Lorenzo Total
caps(goals) = 026 0(10)
037 0(15)
035 0(11)
041 0(27)
332 (249)
023 00(5) 494 (317)
nationalyears = 1991–2006
nationalteam = Paraguay
nationalcaps(goals) = 083 0(25)
pcupdate = 27 August, 2006
ntupdate = 27 August, 2006

José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú (born March 19, 1971 in Nueva Italia, Paraguay) is a Paraguayan football striker.

Club career

Cardozo began his professional career in 1988, making his debut for River Plate of Paraguay. After four years in River, he moved to Swiss club FC St. Gallen, where he played from 1990 to 1992. He returned to South America in 1993, joining Universidad Católica de Chile helping the team reach the 1993 Copa Libertadores de América final. The following year he played for Club Olimpia of Paraguay, from which he moved to Club Toluca of Mexico.

Cardozo made his debut for Toluca in the 1995 season, but only appeared in three games, scoring no goals. However, in the subsequent winter season, he scored 7 goals in 13 games. In his eight years with the team, he has scored a record 249 goals for the club, including 14 in the 2004 Apertura.

Due to his work at Toluca, Cardozo was elected as the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year in the years 2000, 2002 and 2003; and the South American Footballer of the Year in 2002. Despite the fact that he was fiercely opposed to the move, Cardozo was transferred to Argentine team San Lorenzo de Almagro in June, 2005 and finished the season with only 4 goals due to injuries that kept him away from playing several games. However, many critics lambasted Cardozo for refusing to play through the pain. It should be noted that while playing for Toluca, Cardozo fought through the 1997 campaign despite hamstring problems and then played through much of the 2001 season despite suffering a broken wrist in the season opener.Cardozo is the all-time leading scorer for Club Toluca. He is a legend and is known as "El Diablo Mayor" which means the Best Devil coming from the terms Diablos Rojos (Red Devils).

In July 2006, Cardozo attempted to return to the club he is a fan from, Club Olimpia to finish his career but was unable to play for the club because the signing deadline for players in the Paraguayan league had expired. Due to that he decided to retire from football. He scored 342 goals total in his career. In June 2008 a farewell match was organized in the city of Toluca to honor his career and contributions to football. Cardozo scored two goals in the match which had a sellout crowd. [ [http://deportes.aol.com/-/_a/da-jose-cardozo-vuelta-olimpica-en-el/n20080628200409990004 AOL Deportes] ]

Paraguay national team

Cardozo is the all-time leading scorer for the Paraguayan national team with 25 goals [ [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/para-recintlp.html#goals rsssf: Paraguay record goalscorers] ] . He played for his country at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups and was named in the original 2006 World Cup squad, but he was injured during training sessions and replaced by Dante López. Cardozo was also an over-age player at the 2004 Summer Olympics, when Paraguay finished second.

Coaching career

In November 2006, Club Olimpia's coach Oscar Paulin was fired due to poor performances by the team and Cardozo was named as the interim coach of the Paraguayan club, this being his first experience as a coach. He coached for the remainder of the year and for the 2007 Apertura tournament. [ [http://www.abc.com.py/articulos.php?pid=290509&sec=8&zona=dep Diario ABC Color] ]

Titles

* U-23 South American Champion: 1992 (with Paraguay)
* Copa Libertadores de América finalist: 1993 (with Universidad Catolica), 2001 (with Cruz Azul)
* : 1993 (with Olimpia)
* Mexican Champion: Verano 1998, Verano 1999, Verano 2000, Apertura 2002 (with Toluca)
* CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2003 (with Toluca)
* Silver medal at the Olympics: 2004 (with Paraguay)

Awards

* Mexican League Topscorer: 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003
* FIFA World Topscorer of the Year: 2003 (with 58 goals)
* Paraguayan Footballer of the Year: 2000, 2002, 2003
* South American Footballer of the Year: 2002
* All-time scorer for the Paraguayan national team and for Club Toluca

References

External links

* [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/cardozo-intlg.html International statistics] at rsssf
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