José Cardozo

José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú (locally [xoˈse satuɾˈnino kaɾˈðoso otaˈsu]; born 19 March 1971) is a Paraguayan football manager and former footballer. He played as a striker and spent 10 years of his career playing for Toluca and is the club's all-time top goalscorer. He also managed Toluca in 2013 up to 2016.

José Cardozo

Cardozo in 2006
Personal information
Full name	José Saturnino Cardozo Otazú
Date of birth	(1971-03-19) 19 March 1971 (age 53)
Place of birth	Nueva Italia, Paraguay
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1986–1987	Unión Pacífico
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1988–1990	River Plate Asunción	26	(10)
1990–1992	St. Gallen	31	(12)
1992–1993	Universidad Católica	35	(12)
1994–1995	Olimpia	41	(27)
1995–2005	Toluca	332	(249)
2001 (loan)	→ Cruz Azul	0	(0)
2005 (loan)	→ Pachuca	0	(0)
2005–2006	San Lorenzo	23	(5)
Total		488	(315)
International career
1992–1995	Paraguay U23	12	(7)
1991–2006	Paraguay	82	(25)
Managerial career
2006–2007	Olimpia
2009	Indios (assistant)
2009–2011	Olimpia
2011–2012	Querétaro
2012	Olimpia
2013	Sportivo Luqueño
2013–2016	Toluca
2016	Chiapas
2017	Puebla
2017	Veracruz
2018–2019	Guadalajara
2021–2022	Municipal
2022–2023	Municipal
Medal record Representing  Paraguay Men's Football 2004 Athens Team Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Cardozo and the second or maternal family name is Otazú.

Cardozo earned 82 caps for Paraguay between 1991 and 2006, putting him ninth in their most-capped players of all time, with his haul of 25 international goals the second most for the nation. He represented them at three Copa América tournaments, two FIFA World Cups, and the 2004 Olympic tournament, winning silver in the latter.

Cardozo, while on loan for the tournament, was also a main catalyst and goalscorer for runner-up Cruz Azul in the 2001 Copa Libertadores defeat to Buenos Aires club Boca Jr. After losing at home in Mexico's Azteca Stadium, Cruz Azul went into the Bombonera and won the match 1–0. In the penalty shootout, Boca Jr. converted more to outlast what would've been the first champion from outside of South America.

Club career

Born in Nueva Italia in the Central Department, 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 ten years with the team, he has scored a record 249 goals for the club, including 36 goals in 25 matches in the 2002 Apertura. Cardozo was top scorer of the league four times (Verano 1998, Verano 1999, Apertura 2002, and Clausura 2003). He moved to the 4th spot in the list of all-time top scorers in the Mexico Primera Division after Jared Borgetti scored his 250th goal with Monarcas Morelia.

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. While playing for Toluca, Cardozo struggled through the 1997 campaign with 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 Toluca, with 249 goals in 332 appearances.^[1]

^[2]

In July 2006, Cardozo attempted to return to Club Olimpia to finish his career. He was unable to re-sign for the club because the Paraguayan league's transfer deadline had already passed. As a result of his inability to sign for Olimpia, 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.^[3]

Paraguay national team

Cardozo was the all-time leading scorer for the Paraguay national team, with 25 goals, until 2013, with the record being broken by Roque Santa Cruz.^[4] 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. On 4 August, before the Summer Olympics began, he played in a preparation game against the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo in the city of Algarve, resulting in a 5–0 defeat.^[5] He scored a hat-trick against Uruguay in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, with the final result being 4–1.

International goals

Paraguay U23

Score and Result list Paraguay's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	12 August 2004	Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece	Japan	2–1	4–3^[6]	2004 Summer Olympics
2.				3–1
3.	21 August 2004	Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece	South Korea	2–0	3–2^[7]	2004 Summer Olympics
4.	24 August 2004	Kaftanzoglio Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece	Iraq	1–0	3–1^[8]	2004 Summer Olympics
5.				2–0

Paraguay

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	12 July 1991	Concepción, Chile	Argentina	1–4	Loss	1991 Copa América
2.	22 June 1995	Santiago, Chile	New Zealand	3–2	Win	1995 Copa Centenario
3.	6 July 1995	Maldonado, Uruguay	Mexico	2–1	Win	1995 Copa América
4.	12 July 1995	Maldonado, Uruguay	Venezuela	3–2	Win	1995 Copa América
5.	26 July 1996	Asunción, Paraguay	Bolivia	2–0	Win	Friendly
6.	30 April 1997	Asunción, Paraguay	Uruguay	3–1	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
7.	3 June 1998	București, Romania	Romania	2–3	Loss	Friendly
8.	24 June 1998	Toulouse, France	Nigeria	3–1^[9]	Win	1998 FIFA World Cup
9.	29 June 2000	Santiago, Chile	Chile	1–3	Loss	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
10.	2 September 2000	Asunción, Paraguay	Venezuela	3–0	Win	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
11.	15 November 2000	Asunción, Paraguay	Peru	5–1	Win	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
12.	24 April 2001	Quito, Ecuador	Ecuador	1–2	Loss	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
13.	5 September 2001	Asunción, Paraguay	Bolivia	5–1	Win	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
14.	5 September 2001	Asunción, Paraguay	Bolivia	5–1	Win	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
15.	13 February 2002	Ciudad del Este, Paraguay	Bolivia	2–2	Draw	Friendly
16.	26 March 2003	San Diego, United States	Mexico	1–1	Draw	Friendly
17.	10 September 2003	Asunción, Paraguay	Uruguay	4–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
18.	10 September 2003	Asunción, Paraguay	Uruguay	4–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
19.	10 September 2003	Asunción, Paraguay	Uruguay	4–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
20.	15 November 2003	Asunción, Paraguay	Ecuador	2–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
21.	1 June 2004	La Paz, Bolivia	Bolivia	1–2	Loss	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
22.	19 January 2005	Los Angeles, United States	South Korea	1–1	Draw	Friendly
23.	27 March 2005	Quito, Ecuador	Ecuador	2–5	Loss	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
24.	30 March 2005	Asunción, Paraguay	Chile	2–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
25.	27 May 2006	Aarhus, Denmark	Denmark	1–1^[10]	Draw	Friendly
^[11]

Coaching career

 

Cardozo while manager of Querétaro.

Club Olimpia

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.

Indios

In October 2009 he was hired to be an assistant coach for the team of Indios de Juarez for the Apertura 2009.^[12]

Club Olimpia (Return)

Cardozo returned to Olimpia Asunción in November 2009 following coach Carlos Kiese's resignation.

Querétaro FC

In 2011, he was hired as coach Querétaro FC where he led the team into their first liguilla and the team's all team highest place (8th) and points (26) in Primera División regular season. He managed to eliminate Guadalajara in the Quarter Finals and advance to a surprising semi-final where they lost to champions Tigres UANL 1–0. The following season however, Querétaro began the season with poor results, which once again emerged relegation problems against rivals Atlas and Estudiantes Tecos (relegated) which led to Cardozo's resignation.

Club Olimpia (Return)

After spending the 2011 and 2012 seasons at Querétaro, he was appointed to manage Olimpia once again on 25 September 2012 after the departure of Gregorio Perez.

Toluca

On 7 May 2013, Cardozo was announced as the new manager for Club Deportivo Toluca of Mexico where he played for 10 years (1995-2005). On 1 May 2016, during the 2016 Clausura, Cardozo confirmed that he would no longer coach Toluca beyond the end of the season despite still having a year left on his contract. He stated that since he did not meet his objective of reaching the Liga MX playoffs with the club, he had nothing more to do with the club, citing that Toluca was a big club with directors and fans that expected a lot more of the team than he could continue to offer. He stated that when a team can no longer accomplish what is asked of it, that the first change that must come is the manager, no questions about it.^[13]

Chiapas

Cardozo had a turbulent season at Chiapas during the Apertura 2016, being sacked in September and then brought back due to the petition of the chiapas players.^[14] He was ultimately sacked one week later after two more defeats.^[15]

Puebla

Cardozo took over Club Puebla early in the Clausura 2017 season.

Guadalajara

On 12 June 2018, Cardozo was appointed manager of Liga MX club Guadalajara.^[16]

Honours

Olimpia

• Paraguayan League: 1993

Toluca

• Mexican Primera División: Verano 1998, Verano 1999, Verano 2000, Apertura 2002
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2003

Paraguay

• CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament: 1992
• Summer Olympics silver medal: 2004

Individual

• Mexican Primera División Golden Ball: Apertura 2002
• Mexican Primera División Golden Boot: Verano 1998, Verano 1999, Apertura 2002, Clausura 2003
• FIFA World Topscorer of the Year: 2003 (58 goals)
• Paraguayan Footballer of the Year: 2000, 2002, 2003
• South American Footballer of the Year: 2002
• South American Team of the Year: 2002, 2003, 2004^[17]
• All-time scorer for Deportivo Toluca (249 goals)

See also

• Players and Records in Paraguayan Football

References

1. Santos, Marlene (29 June 2008). "En su homenaje con Diablos José Cardozo anotó dos goles" [In his testimonial for the Diablos, José Cardozo scored two goals]. La Jornada (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 July 2012.
2. "Campeones de goleo en la historia del Futbol Mexicano". Terra Networks (in Spanish). 8 May 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
3. "AOL Deportes". Deportes.aol.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.^{[permanent dead link]}
4. "Paraguay - Record International Players". Rsssf.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
5. "Portugal Sub 23 vs Paraguay Sub 23 - Amistosos Selecciones Sub 23 2004: Toda la info, alineaciones y eventos".
6. "Olympic Football Tournaments Athens 2004 - Men - Paraguay 4:3 (3:1) Japan - Overview". Fifa.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
7. "Olympic Football Tournaments Athens 2004 - Men - Paraguay 3:2 (1:0) Korea Republic - Overview". Fifa.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
8. "Olympic Football Tournaments Athens 2004 - Men - Iraq 1:3 (0:2) Paraguay - Overview". Fifa.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
9. "Nigeria vs. Paraguay - 24 June 1998". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
10. "Denmark vs. Paraguay - 27 May 2006". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
11. José Saturnino Cardozo - Goals in International Matches
12. "Archivo no encontrado". Abc.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016. ^{[permanent dead link]}
13. "Faltó meterse en el juego". Tolucafc.com. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
14. "Los Jaguares abogan por Cardozo y regresa". 14 September 2016.
15. "Cardozo se fue de Chiapas…otra vez | Goal.com".
16. "Chivas news: Jose Cardozo announced as Matias Almeyda replacement | Goal.com".
17. "South American Team of the Year". 16 January 2009. from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2015.

External links

• International statistics at rsssf
• José Cardozo at National-Football-Teams.com
• – Liga MX stats at MedioTiempo.com (archived) (in Spanish)
• (in Spanish)