When coaches were players: Giovanni Trapattoni

 

Before becoming one of the most successful coaches in Italian football club history (hold the “Italian”), Giovanni Trapattoni was a tenacious mediano (holding midfielder), sometimes employed as a stopper (grosso modo a man-marking central defender).

Plying his trade between the 18-yard boxes, Trapattoni’s primary qualities were physical (fitness and stamina), which he was able to pair well with a good passing technique that was key to offensive transitions.

Whilst il Trap is known for his successful years coaching Juventus (with whom he won every trophy in his ten-year tenure) and Inter (with whom he won the scudetto in 1989) Trapattoni spent his entire playing career (save for 10 appearances at Varese) on the other side of the Naviglio, with AC Milan under the legendary Nereo Rocco.

©ravezzani/lapresse

Trapattoni was born not far from the city he ended up playing in, in the peripheral small town of Cusano Milanino in 1939.

In 1957 he signed a professional contract with the rossoneri with whom he played for 14 seasons, scoring 6 goals in his 364 appearances (all competitions). Trapattoni became a steady fixture in the Italian national team, although he missed the 1962 World Cup due to injury, earning 17 appearances with the Azzurri, and scoring one goal.

With Milan he conquered the first Champion’s Cup for an Italian club, in 1963 against Benfica (2-1 was the final score in favour of the rossoneri) – a team that featured one of the greatest African-born footballers of all time: the legendary Eusebio.

Trapattoni doubled his European Champions Cup tally in 1969 against Ajax (4-1) the year after he won the Cup Winner’s Cup against Hamburg (2-0). Domestically, Trapattoni won two scudetti and a Coppa Italia with Rocco’s rossoneri.

Trapattoni developed a knack for beating legends. In May of 1963, Italy hosted Brazil in Milan for a friendly. Trapattoni was assigned the arduous task of man-marking Edson Arantes Do Nascimiento, nicknamed O Rey, known to the entire world simply as Pelé. The Brazilian was flustered and was subbed off after less than 30 minutes, and Trapattoni’s fame grew as “the man who stopped Pelé”.

When Trapattoni was reminded of this he humbly played down the incident: “The truth is that he wasn’t fully fit that day. Tired. I was a good player but let’s put Pelé aside. That man was a Martian”.

The post When coaches were players: Giovanni Trapattoni appeared first on Italian Football Daily.

from Italian Football Daily http://ift.tt/1M0kwdR
via IFTTT berita selengkapnya Follow @jadwalliga