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Senin, 10 November 2014

GIANNI RIVERA

 
Giovanni "Gianni" Rivera (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdÊ’anni riˈvÉ›ra]; born 18 August 1943 in Alessandria) is an Italian former football midfielder, mostly as an offensive playmaker, who was awarded the Ballon d'Or, one of the most prestigious individual awards in football, in 1969. Dubbed Italy's "Golden Boy" by the media, he played the majority of his career with Serie A side A.C. Milan where he enjoyed a highly successful career in domestic and European football. Internationally, he represented Italy, 63 times scoring 15 goals, at four World Cups (1962, 1966, 1970, and 1974). Rivera is widely remembered for scoring the decisive goal in Italy's extra-time win over West Germany in the semi-final of the 1970 World Cup, leading them to final against Brazil, where they would be defeated 4-1, however. Rivera was also a member of the first Italian side to win the European Football Championship in 1968, on home soil.
Rivera was an elegant, graceful, creative, technical, and efficient offensive midfield playmaker, who possessed footballing intelligence, and class.[2] Although he lacked defensive abilities, stamina, pace, as well as notable physical and athletic attributes,[3] he was an extremely talented player, who was renowned for his skilful style of play. Rivera was known in particular for his ball control, quick feet, acceleration, agility, balance, dribbling skills, and technique, which allowed him to dribble past players with ease. Above all, he was highly regarded for his vision and his sublime range of passing, which made him an excellent assist provider.[4][5] Despite being primarily a creative midfield player, Rivera was also known for having a keen eye for goal, and was an accurate finisher from both inside and outside the area.[6] He was also an accurate set piece and penalty-kick taker.[7] Rivera is widely considered to be one of the greatest Italian footballers and most talented playmakers of all time.[8][9] In 2004, Pelè chose Rivera as part of the FIFA 100 greatest living footballers, and placed 35th in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.
After retiring from football, Rivera has gone into politics and currently is a Member of the European Parliament for the Uniti nell'Ulivo party. He has been appointed as the President of the educational youth sector by the FIGC for the Italy national football team, along with Roberto Baggio and Arrigo Sacchi under head coach Cesare Prandelli.[10]

Club career

Nicknamed the Golden Boy of Italian football, Rivera was the product of Alessandria's youth football academy and made his debut in Serie A for Alessandria against Internazionale on 2 June 1959 at the age of only fifteen years. He played 26 matches for his first club, for which he scored 6 goals. A year later, he was bought by AC Milan to replace Juan Schiaffino with a record transfer fee for that time, $200,000, also being handed the number 10 jersey, and would play alongside legendary Milan players such as Cesare Maldini, Giovanni Trapattoni, Dino Sani, Fabio Cudicini, and José Altafini.[11] In 1962 he won the first scudetto with AC Milan and on 13 May 1962, aged just eighteen, he played his first match for the Italian national team against West Germany at the World Cup in Chile, a game that finished with a goalless draw. Rivera would later go on to become club captain for 12 seasons.[12]
Due to their win of the 1962 scudetto under legendary manager and catenaccio mastermind Nereo Rocco,[13] AC Milan qualified for the European Cup in 1962, a European Cup which they finally won, beating Benfica 2–1 in the 1963 final with Rivera in great form, providing two notable assists in the final for José Altafini's goals, as he was awarded second place in the famous Ballon d'Or award, which was won by the Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin.[14] Rivera helped Milan win the Coppa Italia during the 1966-67 season, finishing the competition as top-scorer, with 7 goals.[15]
In the 1967/1968 season, Rivera won both the league title and the Cup Winners' Cup with AC Milan, and he played for Italy as they won the 1968 European Championship on home soil. Rivera missed the final against Yugoslavia through an injury he picked up at the semi-final game against Soviet Union, despite a strong performance during the match.[16] Despite his performances and success throughout the season, Rivera missed out on the Ballon d'Or however, which was awarded to European Cup winner George Best, with Rivera finishing in 7th place in the final rankings.[17] Next season, Rivera and AC Milan emerged victorious in the European Cup, winning the final over Johann Cruyff's Ajax, a match which is regarded as one of Rivera's greatest, dominant, and most virtuosic performances, as he captained Milan to a 4-1 victory in the number 10 role at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, setting up one of Prati's three goals.[18] In addition to the European Cup that season, Rivera also won the Intercontinental Cup, successes that finally earned him the Ballon d'Or.
In the 70s, Rivera led AC Milan on to two more Cup Winners' Cup finals, one in 1973 and another in 1974; the first one was won and the second lost.[19] Rivera also suffered a defeat in the 1974 European Supercup final with Milan. With the Rossoneri, he also won two consecutive Coppa Italia titles, in 1972, and 1973, a season during which he was top-scorer in Serie A, with 17 goals, and with a personal best of 20 goals in all club competitions.[20] In the 1970-71, 1971-72 and the 1972-73 seasons, Milan managed three consecutive second places in Serie A, also reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup during the 1971-72 season.[21] AC Milan also reached the Coppa Italian final during the 1974-75 season, and won another Italian Cup in the 1976-77 season, but was missing Rivera in most of these matches, as he was banned because of his statements against Italian referees, suggesting that they favoured Milan rivals Inter.[22] One of Rivera's most prominent performance in the Coppa Italia during the 70s was in the 1970-71 edition, where Milan finished in second place, and in which he was once again top-scorer, with 7 goals.[23]
Rivera achieved the last scudetto of his playing career in his final season, still contributing to the League victory with AC Milan in 1979, despite his own advancing age; this also being the tenth title for "The Devils", earning them a star on their jersey.[24] In total, he played for AC Milan in 501 Serie A matches and scored 160 goals.[25]

National team

Rivera was a part of the Italian national side at the 1962 and the 1966 World Cups. He would later be part of the victorious Italian side that would win their first European Championship in 1968 on home soil.[26] He subsequently played with the Squadra Azzurra (Italian national team) in the 1970 FIFA World Cup hosted by Mexico, where he was Italy's star player as they reached the final, losing against Pelé's Brazil side, 4–1.[27] The Italian coach at the 1970 World Cup Finals, Ferruccio Valcareggi, believed that Rivera and his fellow right-sided playmaker teammate Sandro Mazzola could not play together on the same field, as they played in similar positions for rival clubs. Although Rivera was arguably the more famous of the two at the time, Valcareggi elected to start Mazzola due to his pace, stamina, and stronger physical and athletic attributes, which he deemed more important in the tournament.[28] However, by the 2nd round, the Italian offense failed to sparkle. Valcareggi devised a solution he called "staffetta" (relay) to play both players. Mazzola would start in the first half while Rivera would come in at halftime. With this strategy, Rivera helped to beat the hosts Mexico in the quarterfinal, scoring a goal, and West Germany in the semi-final, in which Rivera played a major role in one of the most entertaining games in World Cup history, scoring Italy's 4th and match-winning goal in a 4–3 victory. However, in the final against Brazil, Valcareggi did not use Rivera until there were only six minutes left in the game, despite Rivera being the hero of the past two matches. Although the two Italian starts were finally able to play alongside each other, it was too late to overturn the result, and Brazil won the final 4-1.[29]
He also played in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, scoring a goal in the group stage against Haiti, but did not appear in the match where the Italians were knocked out by Poland in a 2–1 loss. That was the end of Rivera's career with the national team for which he played in 63 games, scoring 15 goals in the process.[30]

Retirement

Gianni Rivera
Rivera.jpg
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
2 July 1987 – 29 May 2001
Constituency Piedmont II
Personal details
Political party Democratic Centre (since 2013)
The Daisy (2002–2007)
The Democrats (1999–2002)
Segni Pact (1994–1996)
Christian Democracy
(before 1994)
After retirement, Rivera became a vice-president at Milan. When Silvio Berlusconi bought the club in 1986, he resigned from his position and entered politics, becoming a member of the Italian Parliament. He served as an under-secretary for defense under Romano Prodi's government and later a non-inscrit Member of the European Parliament (MEP).[31]
In 2013 Rivera was appointed by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) as President of the Technical Sector (settore tecnico), which oversees the training and qualification of technical staff employed by the FIGC and is headquartered at the Coverciano in Florence.[32]

Career statistics

Club

Club Season League Cup Europe Other Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Alessandria 1958–59 1 0 - - - - - - 1 0
1959–60 25 6 - - - - - - 25 6
Total 26 6 - - - - - - 26 6
Milan 1960–61 30 6 1 0 - - 2 0 33 6
1961–62 27 10 1 0 2 0 - - 30 10
1962–63 27 9 - - 7 2 - - 34 11
1963–64 27 7 1 0 2 1 2 0 32 8
1964–65 29 2 - - - - - - 29 2
1965–66 31 7 1 0 4 1 - - 36 8
1966–67 34 12 6 7 2 0 1 0 43 19
1967–68 29 11 5 3 10 1 - - 44 15
1968–69 28 3 4 1 7 2 - - 39 6
1969–70 25 8 3 1 3 2 2 1 33 12
1970–71 26 6 10 7 - - - - 36 13
1971–72 23 3 6 2 8 4 - - 37 9
1972–73 28 17 6 3 9 0 - - 43 20
1973–74 26 6 5 1 8 0 - - 39 7
1974–75 27 3 4 0 - - - - 31 3
1975–76 14 1 5 1 3 0 - - 22 2
1976–77 27 4 7 0 5 0 - - 39 4
1977–78 30 6 5 1 1 0 - - 36 7
1978–79 13 1 4 1 5 0 - - 22 2
Total 501 122 74 28 76 13 7 1 658 164
Career total 527 128 74 28 76 13 7 1 684 170
*European competitions include the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup, and UEFA Super Cup

International

[33]
Italy national team
Year Apps Goals
1962 4 2
1963 5 2
1964 4 2
1965 6 1
1966 6 2
1967 4 0
1968 4 0
1969 3 0
1970 7 2
1971 3 0
1972 3 0
1973 7 2
1974 4 1
1975 3 1
Total 63 15

Honours

Milan
Italy
Individual
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