Enzo Bearzot , Italian World Cup-winning football manager and player.died he was , 83

Vincenzo "Enzo" Bearzot ^[1] was an Italian association football player and manager .died he was , 83. He is best known for having led the Italian national football team to a triumph in the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

 

(26 September 1927 – 21 December 2010)

 Playing career

Born in Aiello del Friuli, in the friulian Province of Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Bearzot had a moderately successful playing career as a centre back. He made his debut in professional football with Pro Gorizia in 1946, a team he left in 1948 to join Serie A giants Internazionale. After three seasons with the Nerazzurri, Bearzot moved to Sicily and joined Catania for three more seasons. This was then followed by a long period at Torino, where he played from 1954 to 1964, except for a short stint back at Internazionale in 1956–57. He retired in 1964, aged 37.
In his playing career, Bearzot totalled 251 appearances in Italy's Serie A, being called up once to play for Italy, making his debut on 27 November 1955 in a 0–2 1955–56 Central European International Cup match defeat to Hungary.^[2]

Managerial career

After having ended his playing career, Bearzot became assistant coach of Torino, working alongside Italian managers Nereo Rocco and Giovan Battista Fabbri. He successively moved in Tuscany to take his first head coaching job in Tuscany at the helm of Serie C side Prato.
However, Bearzot did not go on a club career, and chose instead to start working for the Italian Football Federation: first as under-23 head coach, then as assistant coach of Ferruccio Valcareggi in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. After the German World Cup, Bearzot was appointed as assistant coach of Fulvio Bernardini, and was then promoted head coach of Italy in 1977. It was Bearzot who drove the national team to fourth place in the 1978 FIFA World Cup,^[3] obtained thanks to one of the most exciting playing styles in the competition. This performance was repeated in the 1980 European Championship, hosted by Italy.^[3]

In the 1982 FIFA World Cup, after poor performances in the three first matches, Bearzot announced the so-called silenzio stampa (press silence) in order to avoid the raising critics from the Italian press. Following that, the Italian team finally started to play its best football, defeating Argentina and Brazil in the second round, Poland in the semi-final and Germany in the Final, leading his team to the first World Cup since 1938.^[3]
Italy did not qualify for the Euro 1984.^[3] Bearzot resigned after the 1986 FIFA World Cup, which saw Italy being defeated in the round of 16 by France.^[3] Bearzot was criticised during the latter tournament for relying to heavily on players from the 1982 team, as some of them were past their best form by 1986.^[3]
After a long period of inactivity, Bearzot was appointed President of the FIGC Technical Sector (Settore Tecnico, the main football coaching organization of Italy) in 2002. He left this office in 2005.
Bearzot died on 21 December 2010 in Milan, aged 83.^[4][5][6]

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