Pierluigi Pizzaballa

Pierluigi Pizzaballa (Italian pronunciation: [ˌpjɛrluˈiːdʒi pittsaˈballa]; born 14 September 1939) is a retired Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper.[1]

Pierluigi Pizzaballa
Pizzaballa with Verona in 1970
Personal information
Date of birth (1939-09-14) 14 September 1939
Place of birth Bergamo, Italy
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
1958 Verdello
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1958–1966 Atalanta 87 (0)
1966–1969 Roma 70 (0)
1969–1973 Verona 79 (0)
1973–1976 Milan 10 (0)
1976–1980 Atalanta 54 (0)
Total 300 (0)
National team
1966 Italy 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Pizzaballa started his club career with Atalanta B.C., where he became one of the Serie A's top Italian goalkeepers, before moving to A.S. Roma in 1966.[2] He subsequently played for Hellas Verona F.C. and A.C. Milan, and he finished his career back at Atalanta, earning 275 appearances in Serie A.[3] In his career he won 4 Coppa Italia trophies (one with Atalanta, one with Roma, and two with Milan), a Serie B title with Atalanta, and a European Cup Winners' Cup with Milan.[2]

International career

Pizzaballa earned one cap for the Italy national football team on 18 June 1966, coming on as a substitute against Austria,[1] and was in the Italian squad at the 1966 FIFA World Cup,[4] although he did not play a match in the competition, as he was a backup to Enrico Albertosi.[5][6] Although he was considered one of the best Italian goalkeepers of his generation, he received little space with the national side due to the presence of many other notable goalkeepers during his time, in addition to Albertosi, such as Lorenzo Buffon, Fabio Cudicini, Carlo Mattrel, Roberto Anzolin, Giuliano Sarti, Lido Vieri, and Dino Zoff.[2]

Personal life

In addition to his unique name, success and ability as a footballer, Pizzaballa also achieved fame throughout his career because of his iconic surname, and also as his Panini Italian footballing card was supposedly extremely difficult to obtain.[2][7]

Honours

Club
Atalanta[2]
Roma[2]
Milan[2]

References
  1. "Pierluigi Pizzaballa". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman.
  2. "PIERLUIGI PIZZABALLA: NUMERO 1, IN FIGURINA" (in Italian). Storie di Calcio. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  3. "Player: Pierluigi Pizzaballa". footballdatabase.eu. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  4. Italy World Cup Squad 1966 – Planet World Cup,
  5. FIFA stats
  6. "Convocazioni e presenze in campo" (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  7. Carlo Cruccu (11 January 2015). "Album Panini, ma Pizzaballa non era così difficile..." (in Italian). Il Mattino di Padova. Retrieved 1 April 2017.


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