Marco Tardelli

Marco Tardelli, (born September 24, 1954) is a former football player from Italy, and currently chairman of Juventus F.C.. He played defensive midfielder with Juventus and the Italian national team. He won the Football World Cup 1982 and was five-time Italian Serie A champion.

Career

Tardelli was born at Capanne di Careggine, in the province of Lucca (Tuscany). He started his career in the Italian Serie C with the club of Pisa. Two years later he played in Italian Serie B with the team of Como before joining Juventus in October 1975.

His players quality have been described as following: He was defined by FIFA as "The most complete Italian Midfielder in history". He won three European competitions : the UEFA Cup, Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Champions League (NB: it was actually the European Cup, a strictly cup format annual tournament for one entrant only of each European national league. It was not until years later that it was called "Champions League" with an altered section format and with more than one entrant for the main Europran nations) as well as five times the Italian Serie A championship and three Coppa Italia (Italian Cup).

He scored the decisive goal during the first leg of the UEFA Cup finale against Athletic Bilbao , allowing Juventus to gain this competition in 1977, his first and also the first European title for Juventus.

Tardelli played 376 games with Juventus and scored 51 goals.

National team

His international career started on April 7, 1976, with a game against Portugal. He played the Football World Cup 1978 and the 1980 European Football Championship. He was especially performant during the Football World Cup 1982 won by the team of Italy, scoring one goal in the final against West Germany and another one earlier against Argentina. He is particularly remembered for his famous goal celebration in the final. With tears in his eyes, he sprinted into his own half, fists beating against his chest, tears pouring down his face, screaming his name as he shook his head wildly. He received 81 caps, his last one against Norway in September 1985.

Tardelli ended his player’s career in 1988. Since then he has managed several teams and was in charge of the Italian under-21 junior team.

Coaching career

Tardelli started his managing career as head coach of the Under 16 Italian national team in 1988, immediately after his retirement. Two years later, he moved as assistant coach of Cesare Maldini for the Under 21 team. In 1993 he was signed by Como of Serie C1, with he led to a Serie B promotion, but without being able to avoid its relegation the next year. In 1995 he then coached Cesena, another Serie B team.

In 1998 Tardelli was appointed as head coach of the Under 21 national team of Italy, winning the Youth European Championship one year later. In the 2000/2001, he left his office for Italy to become manager of Inter Milan, being then fired before the end of the season, after a serie of poor results (amongst them, a 6-0 defeat against AC Milan). He did not have much more luck in his next adventures, with Bari, Egypt national football team and Arezzo, being also fired by all these teams.

On June 15, 2006, Tardelli was appointed as member of the administrative council of his old club Juventus.

Honours as a player

World champion in 1982 with Italian national team
Italian Serie A champion in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1982 and 1984 with Juventus
UEFA Champions Cup in 1985 with Juventus
UEFA Cup in 1977 with Juventus
Cup Winners' Cup in 1984 with Juventus
European SuperCup in 1984 with Juventus

Trivia

Tardelli had a notorius love story with pornstar Moana Pozzi.

Notes

External links

Tardelli's biography as coach until 1999