Alberto Acosta

Alberto Federico 'Beto' Acosta (born 23 August 1966) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a striker.

In a professional career which spanned 18 years (nearly 700 official games and more than 250 goals), he played for San Lorenzo in four different spells. Additionally, he played in clubs around France, Chile, Japan and Portugal.

Acosta appeared with Argentina in two Copa América tournaments.

Club career

Born in Arocena, Santa Fe Province, Acosta started playing professionally at Unión de Santa Fe, making his top division debut one month shy of his 20th birthday, in a 0–0 home draw against Argentinos Juniors.^[1] Two years later he transferred to San Lorenzo de Almagro, scoring 34 goals in his first two seasons combined, that being the first of the four spells with the club in an 18-year career.

In 1990 Acosta had his first abroad experience, with France's Toulouse FC. After a poor second season he left in December 1991, having played in seven matches with just one goal, with the club eventually ranking 16th – he returned to San Lorenzo, where he scored a further 19 league goals, which earned him a transfer to country giants Boca Juniors.

Acosta spent the following three years out of Argentina, starting and ending with Club Deportivo Universidad Católica in Chile where he rejoined former San Lorenzo teammate Néstor Gorosito. In 1994, he was crowned the top scorer in South American football, netting 33 times in only 25 matches.^[2] Also during that debut campaign, he was unable to further help the team for five matches (four after assaulting C.F. Universidad de Chile's Luis Musrri); in between his spell with Universidad, he played in the J. League Division 1 for Yokohama F. Marinos.

In December 1998, Acosta signed with Sporting Clube de Portugal. In his first full season, the 33-year-old striker scored 22 goals, helping the Lisbon side to the national championship after an 18-year wait. He added 14 the following campaign, but was deemed surplus to requirements after the signing of Mário Jardel, and returned to San Lorenzo for the fourth and last time, netting always in double digits until his 2004 retirement at the age of 37. Although still physically fit, the scorer of 300 goals in 666 official games opted to retire, instead of being coerced into retirement later on.^[1]

Acosta kickstarted his managerial career in Romania, with FCM Dunărea Galaţi. In the 2007 summer he returned to his country, joining fourth division team Club Atlético Fénix's coaching staff and coming out of retirement for a few months.^[3]

International career

Having collected 19 caps for Argentina during three years, Acosta represented the nation in two Copa América tournaments. In the 1993 edition in Ecuador, he converted his penalty shootout attempts in both the quarterfinals and the semifinals, as the nation eventually emerged victorious.^[4]

Statistics

Club

^[5]

International

Honours

References

External links

• Stats at FutbolPasion (Spanish)
• Alberto Acosta at footballzz.co.uk
• Alberto Acosta profile at ForaDeJogo
• Alberto Acosta at National-Football-Teams.com
• Alberto Acosta – FIFA competition record

Argentina squads Argentina squad – 1992 King Fahd Cup Winners (1st title) 1 Goycochea 2 Vázquez 3 Altamirano 4 Basualdo 5 Redondo 6 Ruggeri (c) 7 Caniggia 8 Villarreal 9 Batistuta 10 Simeone 11 Cagna 12 Islas 14 Acosta 15 Borelli 16 García 18 Craviotto 20 Rodríguez 21 Cancelarich Coach: Basile Argentina squad – 1993 Copa América Winners (14th title) 1 Goycochea 2 Vázquez 3 Altamirano 4 F. Basualdo 5 Redondo 6 Ruggeri (c) 7 Medina Bello 8 Franco (J. Basualdo) 9 Batistuta 10 Simeone 11 Gorosito 12 Islas 13 Cáceres 14 Craviotto 15 Borelli 16 García 17 Zapata 18 Acosta 19 Zamora 20 Rodríguez 21 Scoponi 22 Mancuso Coach: Basile Argentina squad – 1995 Copa América 1 Cristante 2 Ayala 3 Chamot 4 Zanetti 5 Pérez 6 Cáceres 7 Balbo 8 Simeone 9 Batistuta 10 Gallardo 11 Berti 12 Bossio 13 Altamirano 14 Schürrer 15 Fabbri 16 Astrada 17 Escudero 18 Espina (c) 19 Ortega 20 Acosta 21 Borrelli 22 Burgos Coach: Passarella

Preceded by Antony de Ávila	Copa Libertadores Top Scorer 1997	Succeeded by Sergio João