Dino Zoff

Dino Zoff (born February 28, 1942) is an Italian former football goalkeeper and the oldest ever winner of the World Cup as a captain of the Italian national team in Spain in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. With 112 caps, Zoff is second only to Paolo Maldini in number of appearances for the Azzurri. He also worked as coach for several Italian teams, but is currently unemployed.

Playing career

Dino Zoff was born in Mariano del Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Zoff's career got off to an inauspicious start, when at the age of fourteen he had trials with Inter Milan and Juventus F.C., but was rejected due to a lack of height. Five years later, having grown by 33 centimetres, he made his Serie A debut with Udinese, though Zoff made only four appearances for Udinese before moving to Mantova in 1963.

In 1968, Zoff was transferred to Napoli. In the same year he made his debut for Italy, playing against Bulgaria in the quarter final of the 1968 European Championships. Italy proceeded to win the tournament, Zoff taking home a winners' medal after only his fourth international appearance.

Left out of the Italian starting eleven in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Zoff resumed his success after signing for Juventus in 1972. In eleven years with Juventus, Zoff won the Serie A championship six times, the Coppa Italia twice and the UEFA Cup once. However, Zoff's greatest feat came in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, where he captained Italy to victory in the tournament at the age of 40, making him the oldest ever winner of the World Cup. He followed in the footsteps of compatriot Giampiero Combi (1934) as only the second goalkeeper to captain a World Cup-winning side.

Zoff holds the record for the longest stretch (1142 minutes) without allowing any goals in international football, set between 1972 and 1974. He also held the records for the oldest Serie A player and most Serie A appearances (570 matches) for more than 20 years, until the season 2005/2006 when the record were broken by S.S. Lazio goalkeeper Marco Ballotta and A.C. Milan defender Paolo Maldini respectively.

Coaching career

After his retirement as a player, Zoff went into coaching, joining the technical staff at Juventus, where he was head coach from 1988 to 1990. In 1990 he was sacked, despite winning the UEFA Cup. He then joined Lazio, where he became president in 1994.

In 1998 Zoff was appointed coach of the Italian national team. Using a more open and attacking style than usually used by Italian sides, he coached Italy to a second-place finish in , suffering a cruel extra-time defeat at the hands of France in the final, when in the 90th minute of the game, Italy were 1-0 up and less than sixty seconds from winning the tournament before France scored to equalise and go to extra time. A few days later Zoff resigned, following strong criticism from A.C. Milan president and politician Silvio Berlusconi.

Zoff returned to Lazio, but resigned following a poor start to the 2001/02 season. In 2005, he was named the coach of Fiorentina. But after saving the team from relegation on the last day of the season, Zoff was let go.

Career overview

Clubs

Club honors

International appearances

1968 to 1982 for Italy (112 appearances in all, 59 as captain)
2 World Cup Finals

International honors

Teams coached

Coaching honors

All time great football player

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