José Nasazzi

José Nasazzi was a Uruguayan footballer who played as a defender. He was born in Bella Vista, Montevideo to Giuseppe, an immigrant from Northern Italy, and María Jacinta Yarza from the Basque country of Spain. Nasazzi is regarded by many as Uruguay’s greatest ever football player and he was known as El Gran Mariscal (“The Great Marshal”).

Nasazzi played 39 official matches for the Uruguayan national team. With the Celeste jersey he won, all as captain, two Olympic titles (1924, 1928), four Copa Américas (1923-24, 1926, 1935), four Copa Liptons (1923-24, 1927, 1929), two Copa Newtons (1929-30), and the 1930 FIFA World Cup. These victories made him the footballer with the most international titles achieved with his national team, on par with his compatriots Héctor Scarone and Ángel Romano.

Domestically Nasazzi played with Lito (1910-20), Rolando Moor (1921), Bella Vista (1922-32), and finally Nacional Montevideo (1932-38), winning two national titles. The 850 matches he played in the Uruguayan Top League remain a record as of 2023. After retiring from active competition, Nasazzi became a coach, leading the Uruguayan national team for three years, from 1942-45. After Mariscal’s death from esophageal cancer, Club Atlético Bella Vista dedicated their stadium to him, the José Nasazzi Stadium in Montevideo. In 2001, on the centenary of his birth, the Uruguayan Post issued a stamp in his honor.