Alberto Gallardo

Félix Alberto Gallardo Mendoza (28 November 1940 – 19 January 2001) was a Peruvian football player and manager who played as a forward.

He is regarded as a renowned sprinter, possessing shooting power and an atypical physical display for Peruvian football.

For years he was a renowned left wing of Sporting Cristal and the National Peruvian Team from where he launched strong shots with either of the two profiles.

Because of his style of play, he was popularly known as the "Jet".

He is considered one of the best Peruvian wingers of all time.

He began his career with Club Mariscal Castilla but the Bentín family, founder of Sporting Cristal, signed him for the sky-blue team and his decision resulted in the consecration of the best player in the history of the Rimense club.

Gallardo played 14 seasons with Sporting Cristal, scoring 148 goals in 261 games, won the Peruvian Primera División four times and became the top scorer twice in the championship.

Alberto Gallardo was born on the Rosero Bajo Hacienda within Chincha Alta on 28 November 1940.

He was the son of Víctor Gallardo Cartagena and Victoria Mendoza Zegarra.

He moved to Lima with his family at the age of nine.

Gallardo studied at the Colegio Puericultorio Pérez Araníbar where he began his love for football.

Due to the poverty of his home country, it was very difficult for him to play sports as a child which was why he had to train much more than other young athletes to stand out in his school.

The consistency in the training of Gallardo was highlighted since its inception, a topic that has generated various stories.

Mariscal Castilla was the surprise club of the 1959 Peruvian Primera División, finishing the tournament in third place; Gallardo's good performances earned him his call-up to the Peruvian national football team that would participate in the 1960 Summer Olympics.

The Bentín family who were the founders of Sporting Cristal was interested in Alberto Gallardo since before the championship ended.

Thus, both reached an agreement even before his departure for the Olympic Games.

Upon his return, Gallardo became part of Sporting Cristal.

Within the Peruvian national team, he played 37 games in which he scored 11 goals, participated in the 1960 Summer Olympics, the 1963 South American Championship and the 1970 FIFA World Cup.

His debut with the Rimense club took place on September 10, 1960 in the game that Cristal beat Mariscal Sucre 3-1.

Gallardo scored his first goal on October 1 against Sport Boys in a 2-2 draw.

Gallardo would score five more goals that tournament.

During the following years, Gallardo would enter the history of the Bajopontino club.

In 1961, under the guidance of coach Juan Honores, Sporting Cristal had an excellent campaign with a team full of many youth players.

Among them were Orlando de la Torre, Eloy Campos, Roberto Elías, Alberto Ramírez and José del Castillo.

Gallardo stood out with seventeen goals throughout the championship in eighteen games played.

The national title had to be defined with Alianza Lima, beating it 2-0 with a goal scored by Gallardo.

With his goal in the final, Gallardo was proclaimed top scorer of the year with eighteen goals.

In 1963, he stood out in the Copa América by scoring four goals and, for the following season, joined AC Milan which was the current European champion at that time.

Within the team, he had little continuity and shortly after he was loaned to Cagliari Calcio where he had some regularity.

In life, he was married to Carmen Ferreyros in 1964 and the couple had three daughters and lived in the Santa Catalina urbanization, in the La Victoria district.

In 1966, he decided to go to Brazil and joined Palmeiras.

There he had his best performance abroad, managing to be a two-time Brasileirao champion as well as winning the 1966 Campeonato Paulista.

During the 1970 FIFA World Cup, he scored two goals one against Bulgaria in the group stage, and another against Brazil in the quarterfinals.

In addition to Teófilo Cubillas, the top Peruvian scorer in the World Cups, is the only Peruvian player to have scored more than one goal in the history of Peruvian participation in the World Cups.

He is considered the greatest idol of Sporting Cristal where he won five national championships with one of them as the technical director.

He is also recognized for his great work in the lower divisions of the club, to which he dedicated a large part of his life until the day of his death.

He passed away on 19 January 2001 at 6:40 p.m. after long hours of stay in intensive care at the Javier Prado Clinic due to internal bleeding caused by a ruptured spleen complicated by a severe appendicitis condition.

His remains were buried in the Jardines de La Paz Cemetery in the La Molina District.

He signed for the modest Mariscal Castilla after being observed by some directors in a match played by his school in the city of Huacho and which caught his attention due to the enormous potential they saw in him.

Along with his career as a footballer, he also worked as an office worker at the club since his salary was very low.