Gaetano Scirea
Gaetano " Gai " Scirea ( born May 25, 1953 in Cernusco sul Naviglio (MI), † September 3, 1989 in Babsk, Poland ) was an Italian football player.
He is considered, along with Franz Beckenbauer and Franco Baresi, as one of the best players on the position of the libero in the history of football.
Career
Scirea began his professional career as a midfielder at the former Serie A club Atalanta Bergamo in 1972. Already in his first season he had, however, suffered a descent and played his second season as a professional in Serie B. In the summer of 1974 he moved, at the urging Giampiero Boniperti to Juventus. Here he soon became the undisputed support of the following decade in the Turin defense and broke the long-standing Libero Juventus Sandro Salvadore on the position of the Libero from. Salvadore had just finished his career in 1974. As a player, which were said to "read" the game " to be able, he coordinated wisely the Turin defense: .. Throughout his career he was not even sent off This earned him a lot of respect, even by his opponents, he applies as one of the most complete defender in the history of football.
Also in the Italian national team Scirea celebrated great successes. He was part of the team in Spain under Enzo Bearzot won the 1982 title and took it to a total of 78 games with the national team in his career - 18 of which at World Championships. In the '86 World Cup, he was captain of the national team.
He still holds the A and Club Records series. With 552 contested games ( 377 of them in the Serie A ) he is after Alessandro Del Piero Juventus record. A total of seven times he was master, including the prestigious 20th edition 1981/82.
After the World Cup in Mexico in 1986, he decided in 1987, at the age of 34 years, to withdraw from active football and took over the following season at the request of his longtime friend Dino Zoff the office of the assistant coach at Juventus.
Death
On September 3, 1989 Gaetano Scirea died in a car accident in Poland died. He was, along with a local driver, with a Fiat on the way from Warsaw to Katowice to watch the next opponent of Juventus in the UEFA Cup, Gornik Zabrze. Due to the unstable political situation in the country at that time the driver had some spare cans on board. After a collision with a truck started the car and with it the gasoline canister fire and burned down. Scirea and his driver, who were trapped in the car, burned.
After Gaetano Scireas death many youth tournaments and Fair Play awards were named after him. As in Turin's Stadio delle Alpi was inaugurated in the same year, the South Stand was - those in which the fanatical Ultras Juventus are positioned - named after Scirea ( curva Scirea ).
Achievements
- World Champion: 1982
- Italian Championship: 1974 /75 1976/77 1977 /78 1980/81 1981 /82 1983/84 ( captain ), 1985 /86 ( Captain)
- Coppa Italia: 1978 /79 1982/83 (Captain)
- World Cup winner: 1985
- European Champion Clubs' Cup: 1984 /85 ( Captain)
- UEFA Super Cup 1984 ( Captain)
- European Cup Winners' Cup: 1983 /84 ( Captain)
- UEFA Cup: 1976/77