Paolo Guerrero

José Paolo Guerrero Gonzáles (born 1 January 1984), known as Paolo Guerrero, is a Peruvian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Peruvian Primera División club Universidad César Vallejo and the Peru national team.

Forging his career in Germany, Guerrero started at giants Bayern Munich, before making his name at Hamburger SV, scoring 47 goals across eight Bundesliga seasons.

In 2003, he signed a contract with Bavarian giants Bayern Munich.

During the 2003–04 season, Guerrero played in the Regionalliga Süd where he scored 21 goals in 23 games.

During the 2004–05 season, he joined fellow countryman Claudio Pizarro as a member of the Bayern first team.

In June 2006, it was announced that Guerrero had transferred to Hamburger SV and signed a contract with the club through 2010.

His first season was marred by an injury, which took away half his season, and his low productivity, being a sub most of the season.

Near the end, he did score three goals, making his season total 5 goals in 20 games.

One of these goals was against former club Bayern Munich in a 1–2 victory which left Bayern with no possibilities of making it to the UEFA Champions League.

In the 2007–08 season, his second at Hamburg, Guerrero played 29 of 34 games in the Bundesliga, scoring nine goals and getting four assists, as well as becoming an undisputed starter and a vital part of the side; he was the third top scorer, behind Rafael van der Vaart (12 goals) and Ivica Olić (14 goals).

In the UEFA Cup and qualification, he played nine games, scoring five goals and getting three assists.

His first hat-trick in his professional career was against Karlsruher SC, in the last game of the Bundesliga, scoring the second, third, and fourth goals in a 7–0 victory.

This victory secured them fourth place and a UEFA Cup spot for next season.

By the beginning of the 2008–09 season, Guerrero had become first choice striker for Hamburger SV.

Coach Martin Jol even went as far as saying that Guerrero better not catch even a cold during the season.

Guerrero was fined a club record (somewhere in the region of €50,000–100,000), in April 2010 for an incident at the end of a league game with Hannover 96, where after apparently having been abused by a Hamburg fan, Guerrero threw his drink bottle into the crowd, striking that fan in the face.

The German Football Association (DFB) suspended Guerrero for five league games and fined him €20,000.

He led them to third place in the 2011 and 2015 Copas, and to runners-up in 2019, finishing as top scorer in all three of these tournaments.

He is also the top scoring active player in the Copa América.

He has also been named included by CONMEBOL in the teams of the tournament for the 2011, 2015 and 2019 Copas América.

Guerrero was born in Lima, starting his football career in the youth teams of Alianza Lima.

His greatest successes came in Brazil, where he scored the winning goal of the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup final for Corinthians.

With 38 goals in 113 matches for Peru since debuting at 20, Guerrero holds the honour of being the highest goalscorer for his national team.

He has represented them at five Copas América and one World Cup.

In addition, he was voted the "best centre forward in America" in 2012 and 2017 by the newspaper El País, based on the opinion of some two hundred journalists from the region.

Guerrero joined Brazilian club Corinthians on 13 July 2012, on a three-year deal for a fee of R$7.5 million.

He scored both of their goals in the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup, once in the semi-finals against Al Ahly SC and the winning goal in the final against Chelsea.

In May 2013, Guerrero became the first Peruvian footballer to appear on the cover of Placar, Brazil's biggest football magazine.

The cover featured him as a warrior ("guerrero" is similar to the Portuguese word "guerreiro", both meaning "warrior") fresh out of battle, with blood on his legs, and carrying a Corinthians flag.

In July 2013, Corinthians won the 2013 Recopa Sudamericana, defeating city rivals São Paulo FC 3–1 on aggregate.

Guerrero scored in the first leg, a 2–1 away win.

He was one of 59 nominees for the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or, becoming the first Peruvian to receive that recognition.

He's also the oldest Peruvian player to appear in a World Cup, at the age of 34 and 177 days.

In 2021, the IFFHS included Guerrero in their best South American team of the last decade, being recognized as the best South American center forward between 2010 and 2020 (joining the podium with Neymar and Sergio Agüero).

In 2015, Guerrero and Corinthians were not able to reach a deal on the renegotiation of his contract, due to end on 15 July.

His last game for Corinthians was against Fluminense on 24 May.

Corinthians confirmed his release three days later.

It was announced on 29 May 2015, that Guerrero would join Flamengo after playing for Peru in the Copa América in Chile.

In the 2017 Campeonato Carioca, Guerrero scored both of Flamengo's goals in a 2–1 semi-final win over Botafogo, and a further goal in the second leg of the final to win 3–1 on aggregate over Fluminense in the Maracanã.

On 12 August 2018, Guerrero signed with S.C. Internacional on a three-year contract, after leaving Flamengo on a free transfer.