Giancarlo De Sisti
De Sisti in 1969
Personal information
Date of birth (1943-03-13) 13 March 1943 (age 80)
Place of birth Rome, Italy
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1960–1965 Roma 87 (13)
1965–1974 Fiorentina 256 (28)
1974–1979 Roma 135 (9)
Total 478 (50)
International career
1967–1972 Italy 29 (4)
Managerial career
1981–1985 Fiorentina
1985–1987 Udinese
1991–1992 Ascoli
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Italy (as player)
UEFA European Championship
Winner 1968 Italy
FIFA World Cup
Runner-up 1970 Mexico
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Giancarlo De Sisti (Italian pronunciation: [dʒaŋˈkarlo de ˈsisti]; born 13 March 1943) is a retired Italian footballer and football manager and midfielder player.

Club career

Best known by his nickname Picchio, during his club career, De Sisti played for his hometown club A.S. Roma on two occasions (1960–65, 1974–79), and ACF Fiorentina (1965–74), winning several domestic and international titles with both clubs. He made his debut in Serie A with Roma in a 2–1 away defeat to Udinese, on 12 February 1961, in which he observed the team's star player and mentor Juan Alberto Schiaffino during his first spell at the club. He enjoyed his most successful period with Fiorentina, which included a league title in 1969, the club's second overall, before returning to Roma in 1974. He won the Coppa Italia with both clubs, in 1964 and 1966.[1][2]

International career

De Sisti (kneeling, in the middle) with the Italy national team in 1969

Internationally, De Sisti earned 29 caps and scored 4 goals for the Italy national football team between 1967 and 1972, making his debut on 1 November 1967, in a 5–0 home win over Cyprus in a UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying match. He later played in the European championship-winning team at Euro 1968 on home soil, appearing in the 2–0 final replay victory over Yugoslavia in Rome, at the age of 25. He was also a member of the Italian side that finished runners-up at the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.[2][3]

Coaching career

Following his retirement, De Sisti pursued a coaching career, achieving his coaching badges in 1980, and becoming head coach of his former club Fiorentina later that year, narrowly missing out on the league title to rivals Juventus in 1982. He was forced to leave his job in 1985 after being diagnosed with brain abscess.[2][4] He returned to football with Udinese later that year, for two seasons, and then entered into the Italian Football Federation as head coach of the Italian Juniores (1988–90) and Military squads (1990–91), winning a Military World Championship with the Italian Military side in 1991.[2][4] He made a return to club football later that year, with Ascoli, being successively sacked in January 1992.[2][4]

In March 2003 – after over a decade of inactivity – De Sisti returned into coaching, joining Lazio as youth team coach.[2][4] He left the job only a few months later, following the appointment of Roberto Mancini as new head coach of the biancazzurri.[5]

Style of play

A creative and technically gifted deep-lying playmaking midfielder, who is regarded as one of Italy's and Roma's greatest ever playmakers, De Sisti was known for his simple yet efficient style of play; this involved him constantly looking for spaces, playing many short and accurate passes on the ground, and taking very few touches of the ball, in order to retain possession, reduce the chance of errors, and set his team's tempo. He was known for his composure under pressure and his consistency, and rarely misplaced passes or lost possession. He was also gifted with excellent vision and long passing ability, which allowed him to create goalscoring opportunities and play accurate lobbed passes and through-balls to team-mates.[1][2][6]

Outside of football

On 3 July 1968, De Sisti founded the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC), in Milan, along with several fellow footballers, such as Giacomo Bulgarelli, Sandro Mazzola, Ernesto Castano, Gianni Rivera, and Giacomo Losi, as well as the recently retired Sergio Campana, also a lawyer, who was appointed president of the association.[7]

De Sisti also later worked as a television and radio football pundit.[2]

Career statistics

Club

Season Team League Cup Continental Other Total
Tournament Apps Goals Tournament Apps Goals Tournament Apps Goals Tournament Apps Goals Apps Goals
1960–61 A.S. Roma A 2 0 CI 1 1 CdF 1 0 - - - 4 1
1961–62 A 11 1 CI 1 0 CdF 1 0 - - - 13 1
1962–63 A 18 2 CI 0 0 CdF 5 1 - - - 23 3
1963–64 A 28 7 CI 4 0 CdF 4 2 CdA 1 0 37 9
1964–65 A 28 3 CI 1 1 CdF 5 1 - - - 34 5
1965–66 Fiorentina A 34 5 CI 6 0 CdF 3 1 CM 2 0 45 6
1966–67 A 30 6 CI 1 0 CdC 2 1 CM 4 0 37 7
1967–68 A 30 6 CI 2 0 CdF 4 1 - - - 36 7
1968–69 A 30 2 CI 3 0 CdF 6 0 - - - 39 2
1969–70 A 27 2 CI 6 1 CC 6 0 - - - 39 3
1970–71 A 29 3 CI 11 3 CdF 4 0 - - - 44 6
1971–72 A 29 1 CI 10 2 - - - CM 6 0 45 3
1972–73 A 27 1 CI 4 2 CU 1 0 CA-I 7 1 39 4
1973–74 A 19 2 CI 3 1 CU 2 0 - - - 24 3
Totale Fiorentina 256 28 46 9 22 3 19 1 348 41
1974–75 A.S. Roma A 29 5 CI 10 0 - - - - - - 39 5
1975–76 A 28 2 CI 4 0 CU 6 0 - - - 38 2
1976–77 A 28 2 CI 4 1 - - - - - - 32 3
1977–78 A 25 0 CI 4 0 - - - - - - 29 0
1978–79 A 25 0 CI 4 0 - - - - - - 29 0
Totale Roma 222 22 33 3 22 4 1 0 278 29
Totale carriera 478 50 79 12 44 7 20 1 626 70

Honours

Club

Roma[1][8]
Fiorentina[1][6][8]

International

Italy[8]

Individual

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Giancarlo De Sisti.
  1. ^ a b c d "DE SISTI" (in Italian). Enciclopedia Giallorossa. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Fabrizio Maffei. "De Sisti, Giancarlo" (in Italian). Treccani: Enciclopedia dello Sport (2002). Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  3. ^ Roberto Di Maggio (14 May 2003). "Giancarlo De Sisti - International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d Mario Gherarducci (13 March 2003). "De Sisti canta "Grazie Lazio" "Nessuno mi faceva lavorare"" [De Sisti sings "Grazie Lazio": "Nobody ever called me for giving me a job"]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Milan. p. 47. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  5. ^ Pietro Pinelli (22 June 2003). "Lazio, si abbatte la scure della Gea". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Milan. p. 55. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  6. ^ a b Giorgio Dell’Arti (8 January 2014). "Giancarlo De Sisti" (in Italian). Il Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  7. ^ "La storia". assocalciatori.it (in Italian). Associazione Italiana Calciatori. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2010.
  8. ^ a b c "Giancarlo De Sisti" (in Italian). Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  9. ^ "IV Hall of Fame Viola: Toldo, Chiarugi e non solo entrano nella galleria degli onori" (in Italian). violanews.com. 8 December 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Hall of Fame". A.S. Roma. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
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