José Manuel Moreno

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Personal information
José Manuel Moreno
Date of birth	August 3, 1916
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death	August 26, 1978
Nickname	El Charro
Playing position	Inside forward
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1935-1944 1944-1946 1946-1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954-1956 1960-1961	River Plate Club España River Plate U. Católica Boca Juniors U. Católica Defensor Ferrocarril Oeste Independiente Medellín Independiente Medellín	256 (156) 41 (11) 64 (24) 22 (8) 22 (6) 12 (2) 14 (3) 15 (1) 40 (12) 3 (1)
National team
1936-1950	Argentina	34 (19)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

José Manuel Moreno (August 3, 1916 — August 26, 1978), nicknamed "El Charro", was an Argentine football forward who played for several clubs in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, and is the only footballer ever to have won first division league titles in four different countries.

Moreno was part of the River Plate team known as La Máquina ("the machine") which dominated Argentine football in the 1940s, and was also a member of the Argentine national team that won three South American Championships during the same decade.

In 1999, he was ranked among the 25 best players in the world in the 20th Century and among the five best in South America, through a poll by the IFFHS.^[1]

1 Club career
2 National team
3 Honours
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] Club career

Moreno was born in the neighbourhood of La Boca, in Buenos Aires, and grew up in the surroundings of the club Boca Juniors' stadium, La Bombonera.^[2] At the age of 15, he tried out for the lower divisions of Boca Juniors, but did not make the selection. According to the Argentine Football Association archives, he said, frustrated: "some time you will regret it".^[3] Moreno then became part of the lower divisions of River Plate, Boca Junior's arch-rival, in 1933, having been recommended by Bernabé Ferreyra, a notable forward for River Plate.^[4]

[edit] River Plate (1935-1944)

At the age of 18, Moreno was selected along with other young players from the club by Hungarian manager Emérico Hirschl to make a tour in Brazil. Thus, his first competitive appearance was against Brazilian side Botafogo. He debuted in Primera División on March 17, 1935, in a 2-1 win against C.A. Platense, scoring one goal.^[5] He was part of the squad that won league titles in 1936 and 1937, and went on to become a key player on the River Plate squad known as La Máquina, famous for his line of attack composed by Moreno, Adolfo Pedernera Ángel Labruna, Juan Carlos Muñoz, and Félix Loustau, and which dominated argentine football during the first half of the 1940s decade, winning three national titles (1941, 1942 and 1945).

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[edit] Career in Mexico (1944-1946) and return to South America

Moreno at River Plate in 1946.

In 1944, Moreno was transferred to Mexican first division club España, whom with he won one national title in the 1945-46 season. His time and success in Mexico earned him his nicknamed, Charro, which is also the term used to refer to the traditional cowboy of Mexico. He returned to his homeland and River Plate for the latter part of 1946. His second tenure at River lasted three seasons, and in 1949, he was transfered from to Universidad Católica of Chile, where in the same year he won another league title. He returned to Argentina in 1950, this time to play for Boca Juniors, and the following year, he played again for Universidad Católica. He also played one season in Uruguay, with first division team Defensor. In 1953, he went back to Argentina to to join Ferrocarril Oeste.

[edit] Colombia

Moreno moved to Colombia in 1954, joining Independiente Medellín, where he would end his playing career. He was both a player and a manager for the club. He won the Colombian championship in 1955, becoming the only footballer to have won league titles in four different countries' leagues, doing so in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. In 1957, he won his last – and 12th overall – first division title. He retired with Independiente Medellín in a friendly match against Boca Juniors in 1961, a match during which he participated both as coach and player. Independiente won the match 5-2, and Moreno scored one goal.

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[edit] National team

Moreno was a member of the Argentina national team from 1936 to 1950, earning 34 caps and scoring 19 goals. Moreno was part of the winning squads at the South American Championships (now Copa América) of 1941, 1942 and 1947. He scored the tournament's milestone goal number 500 in an atypical match against Ecuador: he scored five goals in that match, a Copa América record which he shares with Héctor Scarone (Uruguay), Juan Marvezzi (Argentina) and Evaristo (Brazil). That day, Argentina beat Ecuador 12-0, which is also the largest goal difference in a single Copa América match.

Moreno was the top goalscorer of the 1942 South American Championship with seven goals, along with Herminio Masantonio, and was chosen best player of the 1947 edition. He is also tied for third place among the Copa América's all-time top scorers, with 13 overall goals.

[edit] Honours

Copa América:1941, 1942, and 1947 (with Argentina)
Argentine Football Championship: 1936, 1937, 1941, 1942, 1945 (with River Plate)
Mexican Football Championship: 1946 (with Club España)
Chilean Football Championship: 1949 (with Universidad Católica)
Colombian Football Championship: 1955 and 1957 (with Independiente Medellín)

He was selected among the 25 best players in the world in the 20th Century by the IFFHS in 1999. He also ranked as the fifth best player in South America, and as the third best in Argentina, behind Diego Maradona and Alfredo Di Stéfano.^[1]