11 posts tagged parma

Some dubbed him Two-Gun Tino when his love of firearms got him into trouble but, in the colours of Parma, he was a footballing marksman of magnificence.

Giving defenders a head-start, Asprilla could burn them for pace at will during his first four-year reign at the Ennio Tardini.

He famously helped his nation to dismantle Argentina in a World Cup qualifier but, after Emilia-Romagna, the wheels came off his career.

He had some meteoric games with Newcastle, disappointed on his Parma return and fizzled out across South America.

But his searing skills are burned on the retina to this day.

Read the rest of the series here.

Image via sportsworldcards.com

A break from the usual exacting 100-word format to indulge the poetic leanings of Sheridan Bird (@SheridanBird) who was inspired by the series and the works of Musa Okwonga (@Okwonga) to pen a tribute to a long-legged Nerazzurro legend. If you like it, you can find similar works here.

Image via Interleaning

BERTI

Northern Italy
Early 1980s
Big framed boy with quiff ‘n’ grin
Stretches his long legs
Pounds the turf

Nicola likes the feeling
Strides clear of the wreckage
Limbs propel furiously
Thundering away from stragglers

Parma like it
Fiorentina like it
Inter like it
Italia too

The big lad’s technique is humble
His energy, timing and power conquer calcio
Clumpy, honest hybrid of Nedved, Boniek and Bryan Robson
From the left
From the right
Galloping
Raiding
Bounding into the box

A missile with a spiv’s haircut
Fizz the ball in
Berti smashes a path
Heads it past the keeper and into next week
Tour de force
Two-one to Inter

He had a girl’s first name
And an endless supply of girls’ numbers
Playboy in bars
Pumped-up puppy on the pitch
Not even London nightspots survived flirty Berti
Crazy Horse ran with the Hotspur

Nicolino gave his vibrant all in 11 World Cup matches
Won’t see him on a legends list
Unlike gutsy gliding assassin Baggio
Tight-lipped frumpy-faced shot-stopping  God Zoff
 

Berti didn’t sign his operas with skill
He was a steamroller with accelerators
Controlled chronological chaos
Spindly-legged action splash

Cheeky champ of Serie A 1989
Goal getter and trophy taker in ’91 and ’94 UEFA Cup finals
Gangly midfield funpack
Marquis of goals and girls

Back to the guest posts this week, courtesy of Richard Graham (@RPG_1988 on Twitter) with another glorious baldy. If you like it, check out his blog at Lazy Man’s Calcio.

With his shaven head, goatee and knee tape Juan Sebastián Verón looked more like a pirate than a footballer.

However, when the ‘Little Witch’ stepped onto the football pitch he couldn’t help but produce magic.

UEFA Cup victory with Parma, and a Scudetto with Lazio (only their second ever), gained Seba recognition as a classy and technical midfielder. Able to pick the perfect pass, Verón was an expert at dictating play.

A (Calciopoli) Scudetto with Inter followed a passport scandal and an ‘unsuccessful’ spell in England. Verón was an inspiring central midfielder and a joy for any spectator to watch.

Read the rest of the series here.

Image via Old School Panini

Rocco Cammisola (@rcammisola) of The Football Express gives an underappreciated star the 100-word treatment.

Stefano Fiore had a playing career bookended at either end by his home town club: Cosenza.

Given a chance at Parma in Serie A at 22-years-old – kept out of the team by Dino Baggio, whom he would surpass for a national team spot in 2000.

Eighteen goals in 67 games for Udinese between 99-01 helped the midfielder reach Lazio.

When he arrived the stars had departed, but Stefano continued to shine. In four legs of the 2003-04 Coppa Italia semi and final, Fiore would score 6 goals against Milan and Juventus.

He is now the manager of his home-town club.

Read the rest of the series here.

Image via Museo Amaranto

Jack Sargeant (@sargeant_j) steps into the firing line with a 100-word hero who has as many doubters as he does admirers. I’m in the latter group.

Alberto Gilardino is a mercurial talent; a player who’s often cut a haunted figure between incredible scoring spells, himself admitting he’s never quite felt comfortable as an international footballer.

He first rose to prominence at Parma; his innocent wide-eyed youthfulness belying his predatory instincts.

Since, the unassuming Gila has travelled around the peninsula inconsistently and unpredictably, but oft-overlooked as one of Italy’s finest strikers of the decade.

His honours will be the envy of many Serie A marksmen, his goal tally even more so. Only four active players better his 143 goal record – a figure which will surely still grow.

Read the rest of the series here.

Image via LastSticker.com

Another guest post this time, one from Football Italia legend Dave Taylor again.

Argentina international Hernan Crespo needs no introduction to true followers of Serie A after being one of the best strikers of his generation.

Adored by fans of every club he played for, the complete striker was part of Parma’s golden generation.

The honours came with Lazio, Inter (where he won three Scudetti), Chelsea and Milan, where he is fondly remembered for his two magnificent goals in the 2005 Champions League final against Liverpool, especially the second.

Finally he returned to his beloved Parma and, after scoring more than 200 goals in Italy, he moved to India’s new Premier League set-up.

Read the rest of the series here.

Once again, it’s Football Italia and Rigore! legend Dave Taylor with another great of the game…

“Napoli does not have to look for my heir they have Zola,” said Maradona and he meant it.

From the Interregionale sides of Nuores and Torres to Napoli, Parma, Chelsea and Cagliari the Magic Box was pure entertainment every time he played.

Unwanted by Parma, it was at Chelsea where he really shone and scored 80 goals of every shade and hue.

After helping them win the FA Cup in 97, he went onto some stunning heights.

There are no real words you can say that describe the emotion of watching the little man from Sardinia - just savour the videos.

Read the archives here.

The summer of 1990 was a memorable one for Italian football. Serie A sides secured a clean sweep of European trophies thanks to Milan, Sampdoria and Juventus and the build-up was well under way for the World Cup on home soil. It seemed the game revolved around the peninsula.

You could have been forgiven, therefore, for missing Parma’s promotion from Serie B to make their first appearance in the top flight. They snuck up in 4th place behind Torino, Pisa and Cagliari. Yet their arrival was to prove one of the most momentous in the history of the top division.

Every so often a team comes along and truly upsets the established footballing hierarchy. They take matches which might once have been regarded as foregone conclusions and turn them into epic encounters. And back in the early 1990s, nobody ruffled the feathers of the big boys more than Nevio Scala’s side.

Arrigo Sacchi started to get the Emilia Romagna side noticed in the mid 1980s with a couple of seasons in charge which ultimately got him the Milan job. It was not until the gruffly-spoken Scala took over in 1989, however, that the boys from the Tardini made the leap into Serie A. His first season in charge secured promotion - and the Gialloblu never looked back.

It would be hard to overstate the impact the provincial outfit made. They were entering a division which was just about at the peak of its powers with many of the world’s top players and a host of European trophies. Yet they hit the ground running and finished their first campaign in sixth spot which allowed them, incredibly, access to the UEFA Cup.

They did it playing some swashbuckling football too. Scala favoured a 5-3-2 formation where the full-backs marauded forward like out-and-out wingers. Long-haired Antonio Benarrivo and converted Fiorentina attacker Alberto Di Chiara, both signed after that first Serie A season, would come to terrorise their fellow defenders across the country.

They quickly became everyone’s favourite second-team but they were not content with the role of also rans. A Scudetto would always elude them - the closest they came was second place under Carlo Ancelotti later in the decade - but they were not long in getting among the silverware. Their first major trophy came after just two seasons in Serie A. And it came against the biggest team of the lot, Juventus.

That Coppa Italia final was the classic clash of the old world order versus the new. Parma were like an upstart little brother to the more worldly-wise Bianconeri. Over the years their fates would become entwined at a lot of key moments. And, in time, Juve would end up plundering the Ennio Tardini for a lot of its stars like Gigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram and Fabio Cannavaro (via Inter). But those days were still a long way in the future.

Scala used the rump of his promotion team from Serie B and started to embellish and enhance it for conflict in the top flight. Goal threat came from hitman Sandro Melli, organisation at the back from the elegant Lorenzo Minotti and midfield geometry from Daniele Zoratto. Among their other stars were a then slimline Tommy Brolin from Sweden and the man they called Il Sindaco (The Mayor) Marco Osio.

Still, they were not expected to trouble a Juve side which had seen off both Milan and Inter en route to the final. When the Bianconeri edged the first leg in Turin by a Roberto Baggio penalty, most people expected them to grab an away goal in Parma a week later which would surely see them home. This was a Giovanni Trapattoni side, after all, playing on the break was second nature.

The Trap used the attacking power of Baggio combined with Toto Schillaci and Gigi Casiraghi to try to get the result he needed in Parma on Thursday, 14 May 1992. An uncompromising back line of Gianluca Luppi, Jurgen Kohler, Massimo Carrera and Gigi De Agostini should have shielded Angelo Peruzzi from much activity. Juve’s other Straniero was another German, Stefan Reuter, in one of his last games for the club.

From the outset the Parmigiani set about giving a lie to a league table which would see them finish 10 points and five places behind their opponents. Tough challenges flew in during the opening exchanges but as the game opened up, the home side started to create more opportunities. It took them until late into injury time in the opening period to strike.

Juventini protested at a free-kick given for a foul on Melli but Osio ignored their complaints to swing in a pinpoint ball which the striker headed home past a helpless Peruzzi. The stakes had risen even further.

A Baggio free-kick almost levelled things early in the second period and then Roberto Galia thought he had tied the match only to see it ruled out for offside. Scala’s men, however, remained dangerous and about the hour mark they made it tell.

Melli was again the instigator, feeding Stefano Cuoghi who in turn teed up Osio to hit the ball home first time without hesitation. “It was the kind of move that Parma’s greater co-ordination had always threatened to provide,” I myself reported in my fledgling fanzine Rigore.

Juve played the cards of Paolo Di Canio for Carrera and Antonio Conte for De Agostini but could not turn the tide. Once again Galia came closest to turning the match with another disallowed goal - a matter of millimetres - and Bianconero frustration grew. Their chances finally evaporated when Conte received his marching orders.

As the game ended Parma fans celebrated their first major victory against a side who would become one of their favoured rivals for silverware. Three years later they defeated Juve in the UEFA Cup final while losing the Coppa Italia to them in the same season. In 1997, when Parma had their best shot at the league title, it was La Vecchia Signora who denied them. And once again, in 2002, they fought out the domestic cup final with the Emiliani coming out on top.

From almost nothing, Juventus against Parma became one of the classics of the Italian game. But they have gone through tougher times of late before their early, early kick-off clash this week. The financial troubles at the Tardini eventually plummeted them into Serie B where the Turin giants ended up briefly in the aftermath of Calciopoli.

Nonetheless, it is a tie which retains a certain fascination with its echoes of the times when the two sides stood toe-to-toe for major honours. Juve look the better equipped these days to challenge for a trophy but they will surely be taking nothing for granted. After all, their fans can still remember when the Parmigiani were one of their most pesky opponents - both in Italy and on the European stage.