David Pizarro

Olympic medal record
Representing Chile
Men's Football

David Pizarro
Personal information
Full name	David Marcelo Pizarro Cortés
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Roma
Number	7
	‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of October 27 2006

David Marcelo Pizarro Cortés (born September 11 1979 in Valparaíso, Chile) is a Chilean international football player, who was a member of the national squad competing at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He currently plays for Serie A giants A.S. Roma.

He usually plays as a deep lying playmaker but is often deployed further forward. He has outstanding vision, further helped with accurate passing.

Club career

Early career

Pizarro started his career as a playmaking midfielder with the Santiago Wanderers in Valparaiso, Chile.

Pizarro had his first shot at European football with Udinese Calcio in Serie A. Then he had a short but successful loan spell with South American team Universidad de Chile where he debuted at the Copa Libertadores.

He experiencing much success with Udinese under the guide of Luciano Spalletti.

Inter Milan

Pizarro signed a four year contract with Inter Milan on July 14 2005, for €12m and 50% of the rights of Goran Pandev. At the time, Pizarro claimed that he would like to retire in the Nerazzurri shirt.^{[citation needed]} However, he could hardly break into the starting XI of the Milan club.

During his only season with Inter Milan, Pizarro won the Italian championship (due to the aftermath of the Italian football scandal, known as Calciopoli), a Super Coppa and a Coppa Italia.

A.S. Roma

In August 2006, he accepted a transfer to Scudetto rivals A.S. Roma for €6.5m in a co-ownership deal. ^[1], reuniting with former Udinese boss Luciano Spalletti, now in charge of the capital club. Following the success of the 2006-2007 season for Roma, which saw the team get to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, finishing second in Serie A, and defeating former club Inter 7-4 on aggregate to win the Coppa Italia Roma announced on June 20 2007 that it would pay €5.75m to Inter over the next three seasons for its remaining share of Pizarro, who had played an important role in the club's successes.

International career

After failing to qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Pizarro said he would be retiring from international play. There were two main reasons for his decision: he disliked the seriousness of ex-coach Nelson Acosta and the ex-president of the association Reinaldo Sanchez.^{[citation needed]} Another main reason was the lack of compromise and responsibility from some or many of his other team mates, that took playing football as a mere reason for gaining popularity. He also claimed he wished to spend more time with his family.

Trivia

Pizarro's nickname is el "Peq", short for the spanish word pequeno, meaning small. An affectionate little nickname given to the player a number of years ago. Pizarro realizes it is simply a sympathetic way to recognize him on the field. Despite this being accurate as he is considerably short in height, his performances on the field mirror anything but this apparent disadvantage, as they are anything but small. He is a player of extraordinary technique, as well as being a fighter on the field. An incredibly generous player who gives his best from start to finish. His height may be misleading, but his performances on the field are anything but small in terms of quality or quantity.

References

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^{[citation needed]}

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