William Guerra

William Guerra

Personal information
Full name	William Marino Guerra
Date of birth	(1968-02-24) 24 February 1968
Place of birth	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Position(s)	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–88	ASD Tropical Coriano
1990–1993	Real Montecchio
1993–1995	San Marino Calcio
1995–1996	Juvenes/Dogana	17	(0)
1996–1997	San Marino Calcio
1997–1999	Juvenes/Dogana
2000–2004	Pennarossa Chiesanuova
International career
1987–1999	San Marino	40	(0)
1989	San Marino under-21	4	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Marino Guerra (born 24 February 1968) is a former footballer who played international football for San Marino as a defender. After graduating from the country's youth set-up, he made forty appearances for the San Marino national football team, two in 1987 before the country was affiliated to FIFA and thirty-eight FIFA-sanctioned games between 1990 and 1999, making him the nation's tenth most-capped player of all time. Guerra also captained San Marino on five occasions between 1995 and 1997. He split a 16-year club career between teams from Italy and San Marino.

Club career

Guerra began his career in 1987, aged nineteen, with ASD Tropical Coriano in Italy. In 1990–91 he moved to fellow Italian club Real Montecchio. There he spent three seasons, leaving the club in 1993 to join San Marino Calcio, a club based in Serravalle, San Marino, but playing in the Italian divisions. After two league campaigns at San Marino, the defender joined Juvenes/Dogana in 1994–1995. He made seventeen appearances in his first season at Juvenes/Dogana, but then left to resign for San Marino Calcio at the end of the season. After spending 1995–96 at San Marino, Guerra rejoined Juvenes/Dogana, where he remained until the end of the 1998–99. In 2000–01 he transferred to Pennarossa Chiesanuova, another San Marino club. Guerra saw out the rest of his career with Pennarossa, retiring in 2004 at the age of 36.

International career

Under-21

Unusually, Guerra appeared for San Marino's senior team before making his under-21 debut. The defender played his first game for the youth team in a 5–0 loss to Switzerland on 6 June 1989 in a 1990 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualifier; Guerra featured in all four of San Marino's games in the tournament. His last appearance for the under-21s came in a 2–0 loss to Italy on 29 November 1989.

Senior team

Guerra made his unofficial debut for San Marino while playing for ASD Tropical Coriano in a 1987 Mediterranean Games 0–0 draw with Lebanon on 16 September. His official debut came in a FIFA-sanctioned 4–0 loss to Switzerland in a Euro 1992 qualifier on 13 November 1990. Guerra went on to represent San Marino in qualifiers for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 1996, 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000. He captained his country for the first time in the 7–0 home loss to Russia on 7 June 1995. He was also captain in the games against Greece, in September, and the Faroe Islands in October. Guerra then had to wait until October 1996 to regain the armband, when San Marino played Belgium. Guerra's final game as captain came in a 6–0 loss to Belgium in June 1997.

His last game for San Marino was the 9–0 loss to Spain in a UEFA Euro 2000 qualifier on 4 June 1999. Of Guerra's 40 international appearances, San Marino failed to win any and drew just two.

Cap	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition
1	16 September 1987	Aleppo International Stadium, Aleppo, Syria	Lebanon	D 0-0	1987 Mediterranean Games
2	20 September 1987	Aleppo International Stadium, Aleppo, Syria	Turkey	L 4-0	1987 Mediterranean Games
3	14 November 1990	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Switzerland	L 4-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
4	5 December 1990	Stadionul Steaua, Bucharest, Romania	Romania	L 6-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
5	27 March 1991	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Romania	L 3-1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
6	1 May 1991	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Scotland	L 2-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
7	22 May 1991	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Bulgaria	L 3-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
8	5 June 1991	Espenmoos, St Gallen, Switzerland	Switzerland	L 7-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
9	16 October 1991	Balgarska Armia Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria	Bulgaria	L 4-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
10	13 November 1991	Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland	Scotland	L 4-0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
11	19 February 1992	Stadio Dino Manuzzi, Cesena, Italy	Italy	L 4-0	Friendly
12	9 September 1992	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway	Norway	L 10-0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
13	7 October 1992	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Norway	L 2-0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
14	28 October 1992	Ankara, Turkey	Turkey	L 4-1	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
15	17 February 1993	Wembley Stadium, London, England	England	L 6-0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
16	10 March 1993	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Turkey	D 0-0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
17	24 March 1993	Stadion Galgenwaard, Utrecht, Netherlands	Netherlands	L 6-0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
18	17 November 1993	Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna, Italy	Italy	L 7-1	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
19	12 October 1994	Luzhniki Stadium Moscow, Russia	Russia	L 4-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
20	16 November 1994	Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece	Greece	L 2-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
21	14 December 1994	Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland	Finland	L 2-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
22	29 March 1995	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Finland	L 2-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
23	26 April 1995	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Scotland	L 2-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
24	7 June 1995	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Russia	L 7-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
25	6 September 1995	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Greece	L 4-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
26	11 October 1995	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Faroe Islands	L 3-1	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
27	15 November 1995	Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland	Scotland	L 5-0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualification
28	2 June 1996	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Wales	L 5-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
29	31 August 1996	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales	Wales	L 6-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
30	9 October 1996	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Belgium	L 3-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
31	10 November 1996	Ali Sami Yen Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	L 7-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
32	29 March 1997	Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands	L 4-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
33	30 April 1997	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Netherlands	L 6-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
34	7 June 1997	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium	Belgium	L 6-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
35	10 October 1997	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Israel	L 5-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
36	14 October 1997	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Austria	L 4-1	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
37	18 November 1997	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle, San Marino	Cyprus	L 1-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
38	10 February 1998	Tsirion Stadium, Limassol, Cyprus	Cyprus	L 4-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
39	28 April 1998	UPC-Arena, Graz, Austria	Austria	L 7-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification
40	5 June 1999	Estadio El Madrigal, Villarreal, Spain	Spain	L 9-0	UEFA Euro 2000 qualification

Life outside of football

While playing football part-time in San Marino and Italy, Guerra worked as a house painter and decorator, a job he still does today. In 1996, ahead of 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Wales, he pledged "If we take a point off Wales, then I will paint all [my friends'] houses for free". However, San Marino lost 5–0 at home and 6–0 in Cardiff.

External links

• William Guerra – FIFA competition record (archived)
• William Guerra at National-Football-Teams.com