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Probably no one argues - Dino Zoff is one of the best Italian footballers of all time. And this fact is excellently illustrated by a recent European-wide survey conducted by the website Uefa.com to select the best European footballers of the last 50 years.
Living legend of Italian football in these elections was surpassed only by such giants as Zinedine Zidane, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, and Marco van Basten. Dino Zoff managed to surpass such footballers as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Michel Platini, Ferenc Puskás, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Lothar Matthaus, and Bobby Moore. And this is truly an interesting thing - as a goalkeeper, this is a very high evaluation.
What was the career of this Italian legend like?
Now, at 62 years old, Zoff is not only a living legend of Italian football but also an ambassador of this country's football in the world and the holder of various records. During his 22-year career (1961-1983), Zoff played 570 times in Serie A championships - for Udinese, Mantova Calcio, SSC Napoli, and Turin. Playing for the latter team, Dino Zoff achieved several impressive records - without interruptions, meaning not conceding a single goal in 332 matches standing at the Turin team's goal, or more than 11 years! In addition, Dino Zoff also set another record - not conceding a goal for 903 minutes.
International arena
Things were not bad for Zoff in the international arena - the player represented his country's national team 112 times, captaining it 59 times. From 1970 to 1982, the player did not concede a single goal in any FIFA World Cup final stage. And Dino Zoff's record of 1143 minutes without conceding a goal for the national team remains unbeaten to this day.
Untalented and untechnical
"If I weren't a goalkeeper, I would use my hands, given to me by God, in farming or mechanical work," says Dino Zoff, born in Mariano del Friuli, near the city of Udine. The player was neither very talented nor highly technical. However, he worked extremely hard on all aspects of his game and demonstrated that world-class footballers can not only be born but also "be made." Dino Zoff trained relentlessly, even when he turned 40. At that time, Dino Zoff was probably at the peak of his career - as Italy's captain, he led his team to the top of the World Cup. "My career was so long because in life, you never stop learning, and there is always an opportunity to improve, you just need the desire," says Zoff.
Career started in Naples
Zoff's real career started in 1967 when, at 25, the player joined the Napoli team. Life in the restless and turbulent Naples only helped strengthen his calm and cold-blooded character. "Naples and I were two extremes that came together. We immediately fell in love." Already at the age of 30, the player moved to Turin, where he was the main figure of coach Giovanni Trapattoni's team for a whole decade. Here, Dino Zoff totally shone. He shone among stars such as Claudio Gentile, Antonio Cabrini, Gaetano Scirea, Marco Tardelli, Franco Causio, Paolo Rossi, and Roberto Bettega. All of them were players of the Italian national team, all of them together helped the club win the UEFA Cup in 1977. Spending 11 seasons in Turin, Dino Zoff won 6 Serie A titles, won the Italian Cup twice. Unfortunately, there were also failures - in 1973 and 1983, the team reached the final of the UEFA Cup, but both times were defeated, respectively in Amsterdam and Hamburg.
One of the best and warmest relationships Zoff recalls with the team's and Italy's national team defender Gaetano Scirea, who tragically died in a car accident in 1986. "I miss Gaetano very much. It really annoys me that only after his tragic death he was valued, his value as a player was only appreciated as a human. But it seems that if you are a good, honorable person in this world, nobody cares," says Zoff.
Won World Cup
Scirea was Dino Zoff's teammate when the Italian national team, led by coach Enzo Bearzot, won the World Cup in 1982. These years were probably the peak of Dino Zoff's career. This fourth time did not lie to Dino Zoff, as before that, Italy had failed three times. In 1970, Dino Zoff was not even the main goalkeeper, in 1974, there was a complete fiasco, and in 1978, the team finished fourth, conceding only 4 goals in that championship.
Symbol of Italian football
Renowned Italian artist Renato Guttuso later immortalized Zoff's hands raising the World Cup at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on a memorial postage stamp. This image became a symbol of Italian football history. Just like the player himself.
