Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Now that I have completed my list of suggestions, I need more! Feel free to suggest a player...
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Did you give up on finding good info on Mancini? One of my favorite (and most overlooked) players from this era is Pietro Vierchowod. "Il Nonno" won two Scudettos (with Roma and then Sampdoria) and a European championship (with Juventus) and appeared 45 times for Italy.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread That's a good idea, I'll go back to doing Mancini. Then, I will proceed to do Vierchowod. Then, since Vierchowod is nicknamed "Il Nonno", I'll stick with the Italian relative names and do Giuseppe "Zio" Bergomi... 1)Roberto Mancini 2) Pietro Vierchowod 3) Guiseppe Bergomi
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread I was just about to suggest Guiseppe Bergomi. One of my favourite Italian players. Nice work Cassano, keep up the good work.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread im pretty sure this is a thread about players who were playing a majority of their careers in the 1990s. anyways, i would love to hear more about massaro. im guessing theres not much info on him on the net though. Fortunato would be another. baiano and simone maybe. Del Piero. roberto mancini. inzaghi. vieri. corini. casiraghi. de agostini. evani. dino baggio. maybe rampulla, who is the only goalie to ever score a serie a goal. just some suggestions
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Wow. I think you just suggested a whole year's worth . Rampulla is not the only goalie to score a Serie A goal. Massimo Taibi scored one, and last year I remember Toldo put one in...
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Roberto "Mancio" Mancini: Roberto Mancini was born in Bologna on November 27, 1964. He was found by a scout and taken to Bologna's youth team. He got 700,000 lire, and would get 5 million more if he made his debut in Serie A before 18. At that time, he was only 13. He got his 5 million because the promising youngster made his debut at 16 on September 12, 1981 in Bologna-Cagliari. He is part of the first-team for the next season and scored 9 goals, gaining interest from big clubs. In 1982, Sampdoria buys Mancini for 2.5 Million Lire, plus the players Galdiolo, Roselli, and Logozzo. This period starts as the best in Samp's history, and before this winning period, they won nothing. His record at Samp is amazing: 424 appearances in Serie A and 133 goals scored. 98 appearances in Coppa Italia and 25 goals. He wins the Coppa Italia on 4 occasions (1985, 1988, 1989, 1994), a Cup-Winner's Cup (1990), the Italian Supercup (1991) and most importantly, gives the fans a gift: the Scudetto in 1990/91, Sampdoria's first, with his "goal twin" Gianluca Vialli. Many others contributed as well, like Cerezo, Attilio Lombardo, and Gianluca Pagliuca. He had coaches like Bersellini, Boskov, Ulivieri and of course Sven Goran Eriksson. Then, a new president took over Sampdoria, and Mancini did not like him very much. That's why in the summer of 1997, after 15 years at Samp, he was sold to Lazio. He also reunited with Sven Goran Eriksson. At Lazio for 3 seasons, Mancini collected 24 goals in 124 appearances, and his back-heel flick goal against Parma was voted the "Best Ever Scored by an Italian Player". Mancini wins his and Lazio's second Scudetto ('99/'00), 2 Coppe Italia ('97/'98 and '99/'00) the Cup-Winner's Cup, the Italian Supercup ('98/'99) and the European Supercup ('99/'00). Lazio have never won so much. His last day as a Serie A player was on the day Lazio won the Scudetto. Despite such a successful club career, the success never translated into the National team. He made his debut in May 1984 in Canada for a friendly. Italy was still coached by Enzo Bearzot. He plays in Euro '88 and is called to World Cup 1990, but never played. His last game for the Azzurri is in a friendly against Germany in March 1994. He has a poor Azzurri record, 36 appearances and 4 goals. Although, he was Runner-up in the 1986 U-21 tournament. In early 2000, he missed the game. So, he got into form and in the January transfer window, he recieved many offers from Japan, Italy, and England. He went to Leceister City. He only played 4 games. His season was cut short because Fiorentina needed a new coach and wanted Macini. He accepted. Before I get to that, on May 7, 2001, his farewell game was held. "Mancio Day" was held at Sampdoria's stadium, the Luidi Ferraris, and was a game between Sampdoria Scudetto vs. Lazio Scudetto. The game was sold out and Mancini was given a stading ovation at the end. Back to Fiorentina...He is given the job in March 2001 and even wins a Coppa Italia. By the way, he has won the Coppa 7 times, a record. But that next season is Fiorentina's downfall. They hit financial troubles and the once great club finished dead last and were relegated to Serie C2 because of bankruptcy. In the 2002/2003 season, he is called to be head coach of Lazio. He is an inspiring manager and leads Lazio to a UEFA Cup semi-final, only to lose to eventual winners Porto, and gets them a Champion's League spot for 2003/2004. Last season, he led them to 5th place, and won the Coppa Italia versus Juventus. He was then lured to Inter by Massimo Morrati and at the moment doing a pretty good job... He even has an official online store, if you want to buy a Mancini t-shirt or hat...http://www.robertomancini.com/temi/official_store/index.shtml And, If you want to see Mancini's Back-heel Goal, follow these directions: 1- Go to www.numeri10.it 2- you can watch the intro if you want, or just press "Skip Intro" 3- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and press on the Arrow button 4- On the left side menu, click on the soccer ball that has the phrase "I MIGLIORI NUMERI 10" next to it. 5- on the right menu that comes up, scroll for Mancini Roberto 6- Click on "Filmati" 7-Go to "Video 9" 8-Enjoy
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Pietro "Il Nonno" Vierchowod Pietro Vierchowod was born on April 6, 1959 in a small town near Bergamo. He started out with Atalanta, but only in Serie B. He played 20 seasons of Serie A, and would've beat Dino Zoff's appearance record but after being released by Piacenza after the 99/2000 season he didn't receive any offers from a Serie A team. He recieved plenty from Serie B-Serie D but only wanted a Serie A team because he wanted to break the record. That was at age 40. He was nicknamed "Il Nonno" (The Grandfather) because he played in Serie A for such a long time. He was also nicknamed "Il Czar", because as you can tell from his last name, he had Russian origins. He made his debut in 1980 with Como. Later he played with Fiorentina, Roma, Sampdoria (12 seasons), Juventus and Milan, and finally Piacenza. He won 2 Scudetti (with Roma and Sampdoria), 4 Coppe Italia, 1 Cup-Winner's Cup with Samp and 1 Champion's League. Playing in Serie A for 20 years, he faced some of Serie A's toughest forwards: from Pruzzo to Montella through Graziani, Platini, Zico, Careca, Van Basten, Signori, Oliveira, Bierhoff, Baggio, Totti, Zola and more. He was called to the National team for the 1982 World Cup and won it, but never played a game. He was an anchor of the Italian defense throughout the 80's and made his last appearance at the 1990 World Cup. After no one signed him for the 2000/2001 season, he went to receive his coaching license at Coverciano in Florence. He has since coached Catania while they were in Serie C1, Torino breifly, and Fiorentina after they were relegated to Serie C2. Although, he was sacked after 9 games coaching La Viola. He is now waiting for coaching offers to come along so he can coach again. *Sorry about the short biography but there is very little information of Vierchowod on the net.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Next Players Up: 1) Giuseppe Bergomi 2) Francesco "Ciccio" Baiano 3) Marco Simone
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread I have done the incredible feat of doing three biographies in one day! Here's Giuseppe "Zio" Bergomi: Giuseppe Bergomi was born in Milan on December 22, 1963 and devoted his entire career to his beloved Internazionale. This central defender or right-back blossomed early and broke into the first team already during the 1980/81 season as a 17 year-old. He was soon acknowledged by national team coach Enzo Bearzot and was included in the 1982 World Cup squad having barely played 30 senior matches in the Italian league. Bergomi started the tournament on the bench, but came on as a substitute against Brazil in the memorable 3-2 second phase win. He did a great job and was included in the starting line-up against Poland in the semifinal because Gentile was suspended. Everyone was impressed with how mature he played and Bearzot could not drop him for the final against West Germany. Bergomi was given the job of marking Rummenigge and completely took him out of the game. The German star was substituted in the second half as Italy ran out 3-1 winners. Giuseppe was a World Cup winner just over a year after making his first appearance in a senior match! At club level, Bergomi and Inter were in the shadow of AC Milan for much of the time. Having won an Coppa Italia in 1982, it took seven more years until another title was won. This time the Scudetto, Bergomi’s only league championship title in his nineteen seasons at Inter. He experienced more success in European competitions winning the UEFA Cup on three occasions. Italy hosted the World Cup in 1990 and Bergomi captained his country and played in every game as the Azzurri captured bronze medals. A painful semifinal defeat on penalties to Argentina was all that stood betweem them and the final. Giuseppe didn’t figure frequently in the Italian line-up as the 1990's progressed. In a Euro '92 qualifying game against Norway, he came on from the bench only to be sent off seconds later for a bad foul! He wasn’t wearing the blue shirt of the Azzurri again until he, against all odds, was called up for the 1998 World Cup by Cesare Maldini. He made three appearences in his fourth World Cup, took one more domestic season with Inter, before retiring at the age of 36. He was supposed to come to MLS and play with the New York/New Jersey Metrostars, but it never happened and he now is a television analyst.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread ooh i meant the first, not the only. hehe.. how about albertini maybe? him and corini were just magic for the under 21s back in the early 1990s.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Here's the updated list: 1) Ciccio Baiano 2) Marco Simone 3) Demetrio Albertini 4) Alberigo Evani
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Heh. Maybe we should start The Pretty Good Italian Player Thread.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread yeah no kidding, this thread took a dive at Ravanelli I'm impressed by the speed, all are good reads...
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread if the criteria was actually being great, then you could stop after doing Baggio, baresi and maldini.. thats no fun what is the criteria for being great though??? tough one indeed.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Francesco "Ciccio" Baiano Ciccio Baiano was born in Napoli on February 24, 1968. He grew up playing in the streets of Napoli and was spotted by a scout and joined the Napoli youth team. His first season on Napoli's first team was the 1985-86 season, but spent most of the time on the bench and only made a handful of appearances. He was loaned out to Empoli the following season to gain experience and played pretty well. He was called back to Napoli for the following season but could not really find a place in the first team. That summer, he kind of became a nomad. He was sold to Parma, at the time in Serie B, and then the next season sold to Empoli in Serie B, and then was sold to Avellino in Serie B. He played a season there, and he played well and was spotted by promising Serie B club Foggia. He was sold to Foggia and the next year in Serie B scored 22 goals, leading Foggia to promotion. This was the suprising Foggia side coached by Zeman in 1991-92. He formed a exciting and superb trident with Signori and Rambaudi, and the fans nicknamed him "Ciccio", which is the traditional nickname for Francesco in Southern Italy. The trident, along with the inspiring play of a young Luigi Di Biagio, led Foggia to 8th in Serie A. That summer, Foggia sold Ciccio Baiano to Fiorentina. He and Gabriel Batistuta were Fiorentina's main striking pair, but the club finished in the relegation zone and were dropped to Serie B. Batistuta decided to stay, as did Baiano, and they led La Viola to Serie A. He played with Fiorentina in Serie A until the 1996-97 season. That summer, he received an offer from Derby County in England and accepted. He was no longer known as "Ciccio" but just as plain old Francesco. He immediately became a fan favorite at Derby, and won the 97-98 Derby Player of the Year award. He played just two seasons, before going to Serie B club Ternana. He spent one year there but then moved to fellow Seire B club Pistoiese, from the Tuscan city Pistoia. He played there until 2001-02, and then moved to Serie C2 club Sangiovannese, where he is still playing. He only made a few appearances for the Azzurri, and most were spent on the bench.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Here's the "Goal Apostle" Marco Simone: Marco Simone was born on January 7, 1969 in a small town called Castellanza. Ever since a little boy, he went to see games with his dad at the San Siro (mainly Inter though). At 14 years of age, he entered into the youth system of Northern club Como, at 17 he was a regular at Como, and at 19 was sold to Sacchi's AC Milan. Simone was also a superstar with the Under-21. He debuted with a goal in 1988 and Malta in an 8-0 win. He was a key member of the squad that reached the semi-finals of the U-21 Euro 1990. His record is 16 appearances and 7 goals. The others of that U-21 squad were future stars Ravanelli, Di Canio, Corini, Rizzitelli, Peruzzi, Fuser, Casiraghi, Lentini, Costacurta and coach Cesare Maldini; and lost the Euro semi-final to Yugoslavia(who had Savicevic, Mijatovic, Boban, Suker and Boksic). At Milan, he had 9 great years full of goals and victories: 73 goals, 4 scudetti, 2 Champions League, 2 Intercontinental Cups, 3 Euro Supercups, 2 Italian Supercups. He played alongside some legends: Gullit, Van Basten, Weah, Roberto Baggio. In 94/95 he was named Italian player of the year and made his debut for Arrigo Sacchi's national team, but was not called for Euro '96. He was always liked by everyone. He always was friendly to foreign players and even taught them Italian: he taught Gullit and Van Basten, Savicevic, Boban and George Weah, with who he became best freinds with. They were so close and were nicknamed "Ebony and Ivory" because of the colors of their skin. Le loro magnifiche giocate rimarranno per sempre nella storia del Milan. In 96/97 he was not liked by Fabio Capello and decided not to go to another Italian club out of respect to Milan. He wound up at Paris Saint Germain, and in his first season was named the French League's best player. He was then transferred to Monaco and formed a great partnership with David Trezeguet. In 99/2000, Simone and Trezeguet led Monaco to a French title and Marco Simone scored a whopping 28 goals. He was nicknamed the "Goal Apostle". He really deserved to be called to the Italian national team throughout the year and to Euro 2000, but Dino Zoff ignored any Italian playing outside of Italy. Then, Didier Deschamps was named coach of Monaco and did not like Simone. Simone had to find somewhere else to go and for the 2001-2002 season was loaned back to AC Milan. In his first game back, when he stepped onto the field, the Milan supporters gave Simone a standing ovation and a huge banner read "Quando c'e Marco Simone c'e gol" (When there's Marco Simone, there's a goal). But, during the season, the favored pair was Inzaghi-Shevcenko, and he spent most of the season on the bench. He only collected one goal. He was given back to Monaco for 2002-2003 but still did not play. He was then sold to French club Nice for 2003-2004. He got married in May 2004 and retired at the end of the season.
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread I liked the Simone piece...and I'd rather Cassano keeps going with features on players from the 80s and 90s rather than current guys. Much more interesting with a chance to learn something/look back...
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Exactly. I want to start out with the older, retired/almost-retired players first, then start doing the modern players like Totti, Del Piero, Vieri, and the rest of 'em... BTW, here are the "Coming Attractions": Looks like I'm doing a Milan quartet: 1) Demetrio Albertini 2) Alberigo Evani 3) Daniele Massaro 4) Alessandro Costacurta
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Demetrio Albertini Demetrio Albertini was a constant presence in the AC Milan midfield for over a decade, and is a player who makes his team tick with intuitive passing from the center of the field. Albertini was born on August 23, 1971 in Brianza, a small town in the Lombardy region. A product of Milan's youth system, he spent 14 highly successful years with the club after debuting as a 17-year-old in 1989. Albertini spent part of the 1990/91 season on loan at Padova Calcio, and impressed his employers. He established himself in the Milan side in 1991/92 and went on to make almost 300 appearances for the club, claiming three successive Serie A titles between 1992 and 1994 and further league championships in 1996 and 1999. In addition, he made 41 Champions League appearances, helping the Rossoneri reach three consecutive finals between 1993 and 1995, lifting the trophy in 1994. He also won three UEFA Super Cups. In his Milan years he was nicknamed "The Metronome", because like a Metronome controls the rhythym and beat of music, he controlled the pace of the game. Albertini first represented his country in December 1991 against Cyprus. He was part of the Italy side beaten on penalties by Brazil in the 1994 FIFA World Cup final but scored a penalty. He also featured at the finals in France four years later, but this time missing a penalty. He was also a losing finalist at UEFA EURO 2000, but missed out on the 2002 World Cup after rupturing his achilles tendon shortly before the tournament. He said that the Euro 2000 team was the strongest Italy team he ever played on, and the success of the team was because they all developed a bond with each other and were almost like a club side. After the 2001-2002 season, he was surplus to Milan's requirements. He spent the 2002-2003 season on loan at Club Atlético de Madrid, and after that Albertini finally ended his long association with Milan, agreeing a two-year contract with Lazio where he would win the Coppa Italia. He started off well and scored the first goal of the 2003-2004 Serie A campaign, but Mancini did not utilize him as much towards the end of the season. He opted for a move to newly promoted Atalanta in July and played 14 Serie A games before FC Barcelona came calling in January and offered him, at the age of 33, a "dream" move. He is now at Barca and who knows if he will stay at the end of the season...
Re: The Great Italian Player Thread Here is Alberigo "Chicco" Evani: Alberigo Evani was born in the Tuscan town of Massa on New Year's Day, January 1st, 1963. He also has a strange name, which is very close to the Italian word for hotel, 'Albergo'. His record in Serie A is 353 appearances and 16 goals. Alberigo Evani, called "chicco", and by supporters "bubu". They called him so because his slightly rounded face and his hair in a bob recalled Hanna & Barbera’s bear cub that was Yogi Bear's sidekick. Alberigo Evani had some left foot. It wasn't one that was tailor-made for shooting, but it was one that made sure he would be a Milan regular for over a decade in the club's most successful spell. Evani was taken in by the Milan youth academy who developed him into a left-sided midfielder of real quality. He wasn't gifted with great pace or the ability to wizard his way past defenders, but his dependable qualities proved vital to Milan, especially during the Arrigo Sacchi reign. He was handed his debut at just 18 in 1981 and he went on to wear the Rossoneri shirt with distinction for the next 13 years. His honours while at Milan included two promotions from Serie B, three Serie A titles, two European Cups, two Italian Super Cups, two European Super Cups and two World Club Championships, and he scored the winner against Nacional Medellin in the 1989 triumph. When Sacchi became Italy coach Evani became an Italy regular. He played in World Cup 1994, and scored a penalty kick in the loss to Brazil. He joined Sampdoria in 1993 and stayed there for four years until ending his career at Reggiana. Today, Evani has returned to his footballing home. He was hired by Franco Baresi, who is Milan Primavera coach, at Milan to take charge of one of the youth teams and is undertaking his coaching qualifications which he hopes will lead to a Serie A bench. Alberigo has said "I’m in no rush to take charge of a full side yet, for the moment I just want to do as well as possible with these youngsters. Only after that would I like to take a job to see exactly what I have learnt. To date I have a licence which allows me to Coach in Serie C. From next season (2001-2002) I will take the master course which will allow me to work in Serie A." He hasn't been hired as a coach yet, but maybe very soon we will Alberigo sitting on the bench coaching a team...
