Can Damian Pizarro Emulate David as Namesake Arrives in Udine

When it comes to underrated midfielders, there is perhaps no player that epitomises the term better than David Pizarro.

‘Pek’, as he was commonly known among teammates due to his small stature and ‘Pek’ being abbreviated from the Spanish word pequeno (little), played for Udinese, Inter Milan, Roma and Fiorentina in a 19-year career and went under the radar for most of it.

A central midfielder in the regista mould, Pizarro wasn’t as flashy as Andrea Pirlo or as combative as Daniele De Rossi and was instead an understated yet pivotal part of Luciano Spalletti’s swashbuckling Roma side that really should’ve won the Scudetto in 2008. 

Pizarro was brought to Italian football by Udinese in 1999, when he was signed from Santiago Wanderers. The Chilean was loaned back to his home country in order to gain the playing experience he was not going to get in the brutal world of Serie A of the time.

Pizarro stayed with Universidad de Chile for six months, before returning to Italy and Udine in the summer of 2001. Under the guidance of Spalletti, Pizarro had his breakthrough season, playing 31 times in midfield as Udinese avoided relegation by a single point.

Spalletti began to assemble a competitive side the following season, with the likes of Pizarro, Martin Jorgensen, Giampiero Pinzi and Sulley Muntari in midfield, Nestor Sensini in defence and Vincenzo Iaquinta up top. 

Udinese’s peak under the current Italy manager came in the 2004-05 season, when they qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.

Pizarro was instrumental, making some 40 appearances at the heart of the Friulani midfield. The Chilean’s performances attracted the interest of Inter, and the club signed him in the summer of 2005 for around €10m (£8.4m). 

Some 19 years after Pizarro left Udine for good, another one has now arrived at the club. In February, Udinese announced they’d signed Damian Pizarro, sadly no relation to David, from Chilean side Colo-Colo. Pizarro plays much further forward than the — for now — more famous Pizarro, being utilised as a striker by Colo-Colo in the Chilean top flight.

He made his debut in the midst of the global pandemic in 2021, with many of Colo-Colo’s players unable to play due to quarantine regulations. Pizarro was drafted in to pad out the starting XI at the age of just 16, but would have to wait another two years to play again.

In the 2023 season, he made 22 league appearances for the club, scoring six times. He followed that up with five goals in 13 games in 2024. Udinese returned Pizarro to Colo-Colo in order to develop and continue playing football. Anibal Mosa, manager of Colo-Colo, wasn’t pleased with the club selling Pizarro so early in his career.

“They bought him and made a payment plan like someone who buys a refrigerator in a department store, I don’t know in how many instalments,” rued Mosa.

Alfredo Stöhwing, one of the club’s main shareholders, was equally unimpressed with the business done by the Chilean club, who sold him for around €3.5m. “What happens if he scores 15? What happens if he scores 20?,” he said.

“He was sold before Olympics. Very bad decision. I think we gave him away.”

Pizarro is yet to make his debut for Udinese after being sidelined by muscular problems earlier in the season, but Zebrette boss Kosta Runjaic has hinted the teenager will get his opportunity at some point.

One thing is certain, Pizarro will have to do a lot to replicate and overtake what David did in the 2000s, when he was one of the best midfielders in the league.

Aside from a disappointing season at Inter, where he was criminally played as a winger by Roberto Mancini at times, Pizarro sparkled for both Udinese and Roma.

Spalletti saved him by bringing Pizarro to Roma in the summer of 2006 and put him at the heart of the midfield alongside De Rossi, Simone Perrotta and a then-precocious talent called Alberto Aquilani.

Used at the base of the midfield, the Chilean was tasked with instigating attacks, with his low centre of gravity, ability to operate in tight spaces, ward off players and almost unparalleled ability on the ball made him one of the best midfielders in Serie A in the second half of the noughties, despite his tendency to put on weight every summer due to a love of pastries.

Yet there was still a level of under-appreciation for Pizarro, perhaps due to Roma’s lack of trophies and his relative low profile off the pitch. Unlike Pirlo, Pizarro wasn’t a set-piece specialist and, with everything in Roma centred around Francesco Totti and then De Rossi, the Chilean flew under the radar.

With Damian a forward and judged on goals, he’s unlikely to be given the same treatment. How he develops this season will make for interesting viewing, yet one thing is for certain, if he needs advise on how to navigate the choppy waters of Serie A, he could do worse than talking to his namesake back in Chile, who could point him in the right direction.