Comunardo Niccolai

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Comunardo Niccolai
Personnel
birthday December 15, 1946
place of birth Uzzano ,  Italy
size 177 cm
position defense
Juniors
Years station
AS Montecatini
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1963-1964 Torres FC 22 (0)
1964-1976 Cagliari Calcio 225 (4)
1967 →  Chicago Mustangs  (loan)
1976-1977 AC Perugia 7 (0)
1977-1988 AC Prato 4 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1970 Italy 3 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1980-1981 AC Savoia
1993-1994 Italy (women)
1 Only league games are given.

Comunardo Niccolai (born December 15, 1946 in Uzzano ) is a former Italian football player and later coach .

While his coaching career was unsuccessful and short-lived, Niccolai was part of the team of the US Cagliari , which in 1970 brought the first and only Italian championship to Sardinia. In the same year Comunardo Niccolai took part in the soccer world championship in Mexico with the national team of his home country .

Player career

Club career

Comunardo Niccolai, born on December 15, 1946 in Uzzano , Tuscany , began playing football at a small club in Montecatini Terme , where he attended the youth department. From there he went to FC Torres in 1963 , then second class. The young defender played for Torres for a year until the summer of 1964, during which time he made 22 league games. Then he changed the club and joined the largest Sardinian club, the US Cagliari , where he experienced the steep rise of the club, which until then had more of a provincial club. At the time of Niccolai's commitment in 1964, Cagliari was promoted to Serie A , the top division in Italian football, for the first time in the club's history . The team of coach Arturo Silvestri was able to establish itself there immediately and took a surprisingly good seventh place in its debut year. In the following years, too, the US Cagliari managed to stay in Serie A without any problems and to set more accents year after year. In the 1968/69 season, for example, the runner-up, only four points behind Fiorentina , jumped out. In the following year, the team of coach Manlio Scopigno , which included players such as attacker Luigi Riva , midfielder Angelo Domenghini and goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi , landed the big hit and became Italian football champions. In the Serie A 1969/70 they surprisingly finished first place with four points ahead of Inter Milan after all match days . This title win is the first and only in the history of the club, which was renamed Cagliari Calcio in the year of the championship title . Comunardo Niccolai played a decisive role in this success, he stood up in 29 of 30 season games in the defense of Cagliari the place.

After the championship of 1970, the performance of Cagliari Calcio went a little downhill again, you could not build on the achievements of that season. Comunardo Niccolai played for the club until 1976 and in his last season in Sardinia had to accept the bitter step back into the second division, six years after the greatest success in the club's history. The defender then left Cagliari after twelve years, which were only interrupted by a six-month interlude with the Chicago Mustangs in the USA , as well as 225 league appearances and four goals to join AC Perugia , then just as an up-and-coming club as Cagliari was once. In Perugia , however, Niccolai only played one year, made seven games and was therefore no longer with the club when it remained without defeat for a season and only narrowly failed to win the championship. From 1977 to 1978 Niccolai finally let his career fade away at the third division AC Prato , with whom he was relegated.

National team

In 1970 Comunardo Niccolai made three appearances in the Italian national football team . A goal he did not succeed here. National coach Ferruccio Valcareggi called him into the Italian squad for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico , but was only used once during the tournament. In the first group game against Sweden (final score: 1: 0) Niccolai was in the starting line-up, but was swapped for Roberto Rosato in the 37th minute of the game and was not used for the rest of the tournament. The Italian team, however, reached the final of this World Cup after defeating Germany in the so-called match of the century in the semifinals . In the final, however, they lost to Brazil .

Coaching career

The coaching career of Comunardo Niccolais was very short. He initially looked after AC Savoia in Serie C2 from 1980 to 1981 , but the engagement did not come out over a year. It then took over a decade before the former defender took over a coaching position again, during which time he worked as an assistant coach. From 1993 to 1994 he finally showed himself for the fortunes of the Italian women's national team , but soon gave up the position to Sergio Guenza in order to work as a consultant and scout for Italian football.

successes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Niccolai, Comunardo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Uzzano , Italy