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Francisco Varallo
Topics: Argentina international footballers Argentine footballers
Francisco Antonio "Pancho" Varallo is a former football player for Argentina and is the only person still living who participated in the first World Cup Final, which took place in Montevideo, Uruguay on July 30, 1930.
Early years
He was born in La Plata, Argentina. Early in his career, Varallo was given the name Canoncito (Little Cannon). Although not technically gifted, Varallo had an exceptional shooting ability.
At the age of eighteen, Varallo had a trial with Estudiantes of the city La Plata, but, despite scoring eleven goals in three games for the club, the directors of 12 de Octubre, where Varallo was playing, all supported their crosstown rivals Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata and so he joined them, rather than Estudiantes. He played for Gimnasia between 1928 and 1930, making his debut in a third team match scoring all nine goals in 9-1 victory. A week later, he was playing in the First Division. He won the Amateur League Championship with them in 1929.
Boca Juniors
After the 1930 FIFA World Cup, he was bought by Boca Juniors and he played for them between 1931 and 1939. He also won the Professional League with Boca in 1931, 1934 and 1935 as well as coming second in that tournament in 1933 when he was the top goalscorer in the league and the whole of South America with thirty four goals).
In his nine years at the club he became the club's top goal-scorer of the professional era, with 194 goals in just 222 matches, a record that has stood for over 65 years. His tally is only surpassed by Roberto Cherro and Domingo Tarasconi who played during the amateur era.
Varallo was an integral part of the Argentina team that won the South American Championship in 1937, as he scored three goals at the tournament, including both goals in a 2-1 win over Chile.
During the 1930s Varallo formed strong partnerships with team mates Roberto Cherro and Delfin Benitez Caceres who both also scored over 100 goals for the club.
In 1938, he was only able to play one game because of a bad knee injury and, although he played more frequently the next year, he retired in 1940, aged 30.
Records
1933 Topscorer in Argentina and South America 34 goals
Boca Juniors topscorer in the professional era: 181 goals
FIFA Order of merit 1994
The Only player alive to attend in the 1930 World cup final
After retirement
Despite considerable success in his career, it is his place as a runner-up in that inaugural World Cup more than seventy years ago for which he is most famous. He has become even more well-known since he has outlived all twenty one other players from that Final. In 1994, Varallo was awarded with the FIFA Order of Merit for contributions to football, the first one ever to be awarded.
Varallo has previously mentioned that he would have to come out of retirement should Martin Palermo (currently tied for 1st place as Boca Juniors All-Time Top Scorer) overtake his record 181 goals in the professional era.
External links
Francisco Varallo in Boca Juniors
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Francisco Varallo
