Tony Dorigo

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Tony Dorigo
Personal information
Full name Anthony Robert Dorigo
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Position(s) Defender

Anthony Robert Dorigo (born 31 December 1965 in Melbourne, Australia) is a retired English football (soccer) player who played for Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds United and the England national side as a left-back. He is now a football pundit and appears on television with the UK's channel five, as part of their Serie A coverage.

Despite being born in Australia, Dorigo holds a British passport and during his playing career he represented the England team on 15 occasions.

He signed for Chelsea from Aston Villa for £475,000 and he won the club's player of the year award in his first season, though they were also relegated. He helped the club win promotion back to the First Division at the first attempt. He left Chelsea in somewhat acrimonious circumstances in the summer of 1991, having made and then withdrawn a transfer request, and then seemingly fallen out with manager Bobby Campbell after being dropped from the side. He was sold to Leeds for £1.3m. He made 180 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 11 goals.

Dorigo won the League Championship with Leeds in his first season at the club (its last as the old First Division) and stayed with the club until 1997, when he joined Italian side Torino. He later had short spells at Derby County and Stoke City before retiring in 2001 at the age of 35. By the time of his retirement, he was playing in Division Two (the third tier of the English senior leagues).

He won 15 England caps and made his debut in 1989 against Yugoslavia. A year earlier he was a surprise inclusion in the squad for the European Championships as cover for Kenny Sansom, after regular deputy Stuart Pearce withdrew through injury. Dorigo was also part of the 1990 World Cup squad, this time as cover for Pearce. He made one appearance in the third place play-off defeat to Italy.

He was repeatedly bombarded with deliveries of Doritos to his house by his former team-mate and infamous changing room prankster Lucas Radebe, who thought 'Dorigo' sounds like 'Dorito'.

He is now running a lifestyle management company called "The 1 Club" for footballers. He said: "Talk about cars, plasma TVs and watches, they'll know what you mean. Talk about cleaning and housework - they wont have a clue!"