Marco Tardelli

Marco Tardelli

Marco Tardelli in 1975
Personal information
Full name	Marco Tardelli
Date of birth	(1954-09-24) 24 September 1954
Place of birth	Capanne di Careggine, Italy
Height
Position(s)	Defensive midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1972–1974	Pisa	41	(4)
1974–1975	Como	36	(2)
1975–1985	Juventus	259	(35)
1985–1987	Internazionale	43	(2)
1987–1988	St. Gallen	14	(0)
Total		393	(43)
International career
1976–1986	Italy	81	(6)
Managerial career
1988–1990	Italy U-16
1990–1993	Italy U-21 (assistant)
1993–1995	Como
1995–1998	Cesena
1998–2000	Italy U-21 (assistant)
2000–2001	Internazionale
2002–2003	Bari
2004–2005	Egypt
2005–2008	Arezzo
2008–2013	Republic of Ireland (assistant)
Medal record Italy FIFA World Cup Spain 1982
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Marco Tardelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko tarˈdɛlli]; born 24 September 1954) is an Italian former football player and manager. He played as a defensive midfielder with Juventus amongst other teams and the Italian national team. A World Cup winner, he also enjoyed a highly successful career at club level, winning multiple league and cup titles and four major UEFA competitions (European Cup, Cup Winner's Cup, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup). In 2004, Tardelli was named 37th in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.

During an era when Italy was known for its defensive prowess (catenaccio), Tardelli made his name as a hard-tackling yet technically skillful and elegant midfielder, and was regarded as one of the finest midfielders in the world during the early 1980s. A tenacious, and energetic player, he is regarded as one of the greatest Italian midfielders of all time. Although Tardelli was mainly renowned for his stamina and defensive ability, he also possessed a powerful shot, and was capable of striking and passing the ball with both feet, despite being naturally right footed. In 2007, The Times placed Tardelli at number 10 in their list of the 50 hardest footballers in history.

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 in 1972. Two years later he played in the Serie B with Como before joining Serie A giants Juventus the next year, in October 1975.

During his decade-long stint at the Turin club, he won all the three major European competitions: the UEFA Cup, the Cup Winners' Cup, and the European Cup, as well as five Italian Serie A championships, and three Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) titles.

He scored the decisive goal during the first leg of the 1977 UEFA Cup final against Athletic Bilbao, which allowed him and Juventus to win their first ever European title.

In total, Tardelli played 376 games with Juventus and scored 51 goals. He left the Turin club in 1985, moving on to rivals Internazionale, where he remained until 1987, before ending his career in 1988, after a season with Swiss side St. Gallen.

National team

Tardelli made his international debut on 7 April 1976 against Portugal. He played at the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 European Football Championship, reaching the semi-final and a fourth-place finish in both tournaments, and being named as a member of the team of the tournament at Euro 80 on home soil. He performed especially well during Italy's 1982 World Cup-winning campaign, scoring twice. His first came in a second-round group stage match against Argentina, and his memorable second goal of the tournament was scored in the final against West Germany, with a left footed strike from outside the area. He is particularly remembered for his famous goal celebration in the final. With tears in his eyes, he sprinted towards the Italian bench, fists clenched in front of his chest, screaming "Gol! Gol!" as he shook his head wildly. This celebration would become known as the "Tardelli cry", and was one of the defining images of Italy's 1982 World Cup triumph.

He won a total of 81 caps for Italy, playing his final game for them against Norway in September 1985. He was part of the squad for 1986 FIFA World Cup, but did not play. He retired as a player in 1988.

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 became the assistant coach of Cesare Maldini for the Under 21 team. In 1993 he switched to Como of Serie C1. He led Como to promotion into Serie B, but was unable to avoid relegation.

Tardelli in his role as Republic of Ireland assistant manager, May 2010

In 1995 he took over Cesena, another Serie B team. Tardelli would spend three seasons with Cesena before leaving to become head coach of the Italian Under 21 team. He won the Under 21 European Championship, the following year, and also coached the Italian side which took part at the 2000 Summer Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals. His success with the Italian Under 21 side led Tardelli to became the manager of Internazionale for the 2000–01 season. His tenure with the Nerazzurri would be short; following a string of embarrassing defeats especially a 6–0 defeat to local rivals AC Milan, Tardelli was fired in June 2001. Tardelli did not have much luck in the coaching jobs that followed, which included spells with Bari, the Egyptian national team and Arezzo.

Tardelli served for a short time as part of the administrative council of his former club Juventus in 2006, before resigning in 2007 allegedly due to differences with the hierarchy regarding the direction the club was heading towards. In February 2008, he joined the coaching staff of the Republic of Ireland national team as an assistant manager to the recently appointed Giovanni Trapattoni. He was reunited with former Juventus teammate Liam Brady, who was also named as Trapattoni's assistant.

Tardelli parted ways with the Republic of Ireland national team on 11 September 2013 by mutual consent, after a defeat by Austria the previous day.

Career statistics

Club

Club performance			League		Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1972–73	Pisa S.C.	Serie A	8	2
1973–74			33	2
1974–75	Como	Serie B	36	2
1975–76	Juventus	Serie A	26	2
1976–77			28	4
1977–78			26	4
1978–79			29	4
1979–80			18	4
1980–81			28	7
1981–82			22	3
1982–83			26	5
1983–84			28	0
1984–85			28	2
1985–86	Internazionale		19	2
1986–87			24	0
1987–88	St. Gallen	Nationalliga A	14	0
Totals	Italy		379	43	-	-	-	-	379	43
	Switzerland		14	0	-	-	-	-	14	0
Career totals			393	43	-	-	-	-	393	43

International

Italy national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1976	8	0
1977	7	0
1978	13	1
1979	4	2
1980	12	1
1981	6	0
1982	13	2
1983	4	0
1984	7	0
1985	6	0
Total	81	6

Manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Internazionale		October 2000	June 2001	40	15	13	12	37.50
Total				40	15	13	12	37.50

Honours

Player

Club

Juventus

• Serie A: 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84
• Coppa Italia: 1978-79, 1982-83
• UEFA Cup: 1976-77
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1983-84
• UEFA Super Cup: 1984
• European Cup: 1984-85

International

Italy

• FIFA World Cup: 1982

Inidividual

• UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll: #37
• FIFA XI: 1979
• UEFA Euro 1980 Team of the Tournament
• Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2015

Coach

International

Italy under-21

• Mediterranean Games: 1997
• UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2000

See also

• List of players to have won the three main European club competitions

External links

• Tardelli's biography as coach until 1999 (Italian)