José Cardozo

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José Cardozo
Personal information
Full name José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Team information
Current team
 -
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 27 August, 2006
Olympic medal record
Representing  Paraguay
Men's Football
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Team Competition

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

In July of 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.

Paraguay national team

Cardozo is the all-time leading scorer for the Paraguayan national team with 25 goals. 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 of 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. [1]

Titles

Awards

Preceded by South American Footballer of the Year
2002 		Succeeded by
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