Claudio Pizarro’s legendary career goes on. The 40-year-old will stay at SV Werder Bremen for his 21st campaign in Europe. Werder’s sporting director Frank Baumann confirmed the news before Werder’s final game of the season on Saturday.
Claudio Pizarro’s legendary career goes on. The 40-year-old will stay at SV Werder Bremen for his 21st campaign in Europe. Werder’s sporting director Frank Baumann confirmed the news before Werder’s final game of the season on Saturday.
“We have agreed with Claudio that he will stay here and will sign a suitable contract in the coming days,” explained Frank Baumann, who is also confident that “Claudio will continue to play the special role that he has this season. The experience and outlook that he brings on and off the pitch will hopefully be important for us next season too,” he explained.
Werder’s head coach Florian Kohfeldt also has a similar view: “In the last few weeks, I have continuously spoken about how important Claudio is to us. Off the pitch, he is a player who everybody looks at – all the players try to take in all of his experience. When he comes onto the pitch, he is still capable of providing us a new impetus with his quality and presence. We didn’t want to lose these characteristics.”
Claudio Pizarro is delighted to be spending another year in Bremen. “I have always said that my future plans would depend on what my body was telling me. I still feel good, so I’m glad to be staying here for another year. We have developed really well as a team this season and I’m sure we’ll carry on improving. I’d like to be a part of that too.”
Pizarro moved to Werder in 1999 after playing for Academia Deportiva Cantolao, Deportiva Pesquero and Alianza Lima in South America. The Peruvian striker then moved to FC Bayern Munich in 2001, before signing for Chelsea in 2007. He then returned to Werder in 2009. Another transfer came in 2012, when he rejoined FC Bayern. Werder brought him back for a third time in 2015, before 1. FC Köln snapped him up in 2017. Incredibly, he then joined Werder for a fourth time last summer. So far, he has made 471 Bundesliga appearances and scored 196 goals. Alongside that, he has played 73 times in the Champions League (21 goals), 57 times in the DFB-Pokal (32 goals) and 21 times in the Premier League (2 goals). He also won 85 caps for his country, scoring 20 times. Pizarro has won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal six times each and also picked up a Champions League winners medal and won the Club World Cup. Pizarro also holds the record for the oldest goalscorer in the Bundesliga.
