Sandro Mazzola

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Sandro Mazzola
Ajman 1968-08-25 stamp - Sandro Mazzola.jpg
Personnel
Surname Alessandro Mazzola
birthday November 8, 1942
place of birth TurinItaly
size 179 cm
position Midfield / storm
Juniors
Years station
1958-1960 Inter Milan
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1960-1977 Inter Milan 418 (116)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1963-1974 Italy 70 0(22)
1 Only league games are given.

Alessandro "Sandro" Mazzola (born November 8, 1942 in Turin , Italy ) is a former Italian football player .

Mazzola played exclusively for Inter Milan during his active career and was a member of the team that won numerous titles as “La grande Inter” in the mid-1960s. Even today he is considered one of the club's best players, for whom he scored 158 goals in a total of 565 competitive games.

With the Italian national team , Mazzola was European champion in 1968 .

youth

Alessandro Mazzola was born in Turin on November 8, 1942 . He is the eldest son of Valentino Mazzola , captain of the legendary Grande Torino team of AC Turin and the greatest football star in post-war Italy, who died with most of his team in a plane crash in 1949 ( Superga plane crash ). At that time, little Alessandro, who soon everyone just called "Sandro", was only six years old.

Career in the club

Together with his younger brother Ferruccio , he moved to Inter Milan in 1958 at the age of 16 . Mazzola made his Serie A debut on June 10, 1961 in the game against Juventus Turin . In protest against the association, Inter coach Helenio Herrera decided not to nominate professionals and only put up youth players who lost 9-1 to Juventus. Mazzola scored the consolation goal from a penalty .

In the following years Herrera built one of the best club teams in European football. The basic structure and recipe for success was the catenaccio : Libero Armando Picchi , defenders Tarcisio Burgnich and Giacinto Facchetti formed the defensive bulwark , the counterattacks should run over the fast flank players Jair da Costa and Mario Corso , in midfield playmaker Luis Suárez set the pace. In this game system Mazzola became a regular player from the 1962/63 season. He oscillated between midfield and attack, benefiting from his goal hazard as well as his creativity and technical class. The Catenaccio should prove to be successful: In 1963 , 1965 and 1966 Inter won the Italian championship title , with Mazzola becoming top scorer with 17 league goals in 1964/65. Inter Milan was also successful internationally: Real Madrid were defeated 3-1 in the final of the European Cup in 1964 , with Mazzola having a significant share in the title win with two goals in the final. With a total of seven goals, he won the title of best goalscorer (together with Ferenc Puskás and Vladimir Kovačević ). The following year the Herrera protégés defended the title when they beat Benfica Lisbon 1-0. In 1964 and 1965, the Nerazzurri even won the World Cup twice in Lombardy . In 1967, Inter lost 2-1 in the final of the European Cup against Celtic Glasgow . Mazzola had put his team in the lead with a penalty kick, but the Lisbon Lions beat the favorites.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Mazzola's role changed: Suárez had left the club and with Roberto Boninsegna they had signed an accurate center forward, which is why Mazzola, as the new captain, acted in midfield from now on. Boninsegna was a reliable goalscorer while Mazzola acted as the new playmaker. In 1970/71 he won his fourth Scudetto. In the same year, the sports journalists voted him in the election for European Footballer of the Year in second place behind Johan Cruyff . Cruyff had defeated Inter with Ajax Amsterdam in Mazzola's fourth final of the European Cup with 2-0.

After 17 years in the black and blue dress, Mazzola announced that he would end his career after the 1976/77 season. His last game was the cup final ( Coppa Italia ) on July 2, 1977 against AC Milan , who won the game 2-0. It was also Mazzola's last encounter with his eternal rival Gianni Rivera . In total, Sandro Mazzola played 565 competitive games (158 goals) for Inter Milan, which are broken down as follows: 418 games (116 goals) in Serie A, 80 games (24 goals) in Coppa Italia and 67 games (18 goals) in European Cup.

Career in the national team

The then 20-year-old Mazzola made his debut in the national team on May 12, 1963 in a 3-0 victory over world champions Brazil , where he also scored a goal. In 1966 Mazzola was part of Edmondo Fabbri's World Cup squad in England and was used in all group matches . He scored one goal in a 2-0 win over Chile . But Italy lost two games, including a sensational defeat against North Korea . After the incredible elimination in the preliminary round, the national players were pelted with tomatoes by angry Tifosi on arrival in Rome .

Two years later at the European Championships in 1968 Mazzola knew how to convince and led the Squadra Azzurra to the title; the national team had thus rehabilitated itself for the embarrassing departure of 1966.

At the Football World Cup in Mexico in 1970 , the Italians were among the favorites for the title. The team of national coach Ferruccio Valcareggi had a problem: With Mazzola and Gianni Rivera from AC Milan , he had two equal players for the position of playmaker. Valcareggi did not believe that both could play together, which is why he let Mazzola start and Rivera always came on at halftime (so-called staffetta ). Mazzola was on the field in the semifinals against Germany in the first half of the match of the century . Italy won 4: 3 after extra time and moved into the World Cup final. In the final (1: 4 against Brazil) Valcareggi moved away from the Staffetta and did not replace Mazzola with Rivera until the 83rd minute, because he thought he was stronger defensively, which is why the coach was severely criticized.

1974 Mazzola was to play his third and final World Cup finals. But as in 1966, the Italians did not get beyond the preliminary round; Valcareggi trusted Mazzola alone this time as a playmaker, but when they lost 2-1 to Poland in the last group game , the Azzurri were eliminated. This game on June 23, 1974 was his last international game, after 70 internationals (22 goals) he ended his career.

successes

society

National team

Personally

Season overview

society league season league Coppa Italia European Cup Other total
Games Gates Games Gates Games Gates Games Gates Games Gates
Inter Milan Series A 1960/61 1 1 - - - - - - 1 1
1961/62 1 0 - - - - - - 1 0
1962/63 23 10 1 1 - - - - 24 11
1963/64 30th 9 - - 9 7th - - 39 16
1964/65 33 17th 2 0 6th 3 2 1 43 21st
1965/66 30th 19th 1 0 4th 1 2 0 37 22nd
1966/67 30th 17th 2 2 10 3 - - 42 22nd
1967/68 28 6th 9 2 - - - - 37 8th
1968/69 29 7th 3 0 - - - - 32 7th
1969/70 28 4th 5 1 10 1 - - 43 6th
1970/71 29 7th 3 2 7th 1 - - 33 9
1971/72 28 7th 9 2 9 2 - - 46 11
1972/73 26th 2 9 4th 6th 0 - - 41 6th
1973/74 26th 4th 10 3 2 0 - - 38 7th
1974/75 23 3 7th 0 4th 0 - - 34 3
1975/76 25th 2 10 4th - - - - 35 6th
1976/77 28 1 9 3 2 0 - - 39 4th
Career total 418 116 80 24 63 17th 4th 1 565 158
National team
year Games Gates
1963 4th 1
1964 3 3
1965 8th 6th
1966 9 3
1967 3 3
1968 5 -
1969 4th 2
1970 10 2
1971 5 -
1972 8th -
1973 6th -
1974 5 -
total 70 22nd

Web links

Commons : Sandro Mazzola  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.inter.it/it/archivio_giocatore/G0400