Claudio Pizarro Peruvian Footballer From Callao

Early life

Claudio Miguel Pizarro Bosio was born on 3 October 1978 in Callao, Peru, and grew up in the Santiago de Surco district of Lima. His father, also named Claudio Pizarro, was a naval officer, and his mother is Patricia Bosio. He began playing organised football as a boy at the Academia Deportiva Cantolao in Callao. The family has Italian roots, with some great-grandparents from Brescia and grandparents from Frattaminore, near Naples.

Career

Pizarro became a professional with Deportivo Pesquero, a small side from the northern Peruvian city of Chimbote, making his debut in 1996 against Alianza Lima. He scored three goals in 16 appearances that season. He then moved to Alianza Lima, where he scored 25 times over two seasons and helped the team to second place in the 1999 Torneo Apertura. That form led to a transfer to Germany, and Werder Bremen signed him in the summer of 1999.

His Bundesliga debut came on 28 August 1999 as a substitute, and he scored his first league goal two weeks later against Kaiserslautern. A hat-trick against Wolfsburg followed within days, and he ended the season with ten league goals. In Europe he helped Bremen overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit against Olympique Lyonnais in the UEFA Cup. Bayern Munich signed him on 7 June 2001. Over his first spell there he won the 2002-03 league and cup double and took further league titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Supporters nicknamed him the "Bomber of the Andes", a nod to his origins and to the Bayern striker Gerd Müller.

In July 2007 he joined Chelsea, becoming the first Peruvian to sign for the club. He scored twice in the Premier League there, both goals against Birmingham City. In August 2008 he went back to Bremen on loan and scored 17 league goals in 26 appearances. Bremen reached the UEFA Cup final, which they lost 2-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk after extra time on 20 May 2009; Pizarro's goals had helped eliminate Milan and Hamburg along the way. He signed permanently in August 2009, and in October 2010 his 134th Bundesliga goal made him the highest-scoring foreign-born player in the league's history at that point.

He rejoined Bayern in 2012. In the 2012-13 season he scored a hat-trick against Lille in the Champions League, and Bayern won that competition, followed by the Super Cup and the Club World Cup. Bremen took him back in September 2015, and in March 2016 he became the oldest player to score a Bundesliga hat-trick. After a season at 1. FC Köln he made a fifth return to Bremen in July 2018. On 16 February 2019 he became the oldest scorer in Bundesliga history, and he later extended that record to 40 years and 227 days. He retired after the 2019-20 season, his last appearance coming on 27 June 2020. His Bundesliga total stands at 197 goals in 490 matches.

For Peru he made his debut in February 1999, earned 85 caps and scored 20 goals. He captained the side to third place at the 2015 Copa América and also played in the 2004 and 2007 editions. In August 2003 he scored after 18 seconds against Mexico, the quickest goal in the national team's history. His last cap came in March 2016.

Recognition

Pizarro won the Bundesliga with Bayern in 2002-03, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15, and the DFB-Pokal with Bayern and, in 2008-09, with Bremen. He was the DFB-Pokal top scorer in 2004-05, named Best Iberoamerican Football Player in Europe in 2005, and top scorer of the 2009-10 UEFA Europa League. He is Werder Bremen's all-time leading scorer with 152 goals in all competitions.

Personal life

Pizarro has a sister, Patricia, and a younger brother, Diego, who is also a professional footballer. He is married to Karla Salcedo, and they have three children. In September 2020 he became an ambassador for Bayern Munich.