Alberto Di Chiara (; born 29 March 1964) is an Italian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

, who played for

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, Reggiana,

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

and

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, as well as for the Italy national side, as a winger and full back. He is the younger brother of the Italian footballer

Stefano Di Chiara Stefano Di Chiara (born 21 February 1957) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager, who played as a defender, and is the older brother of footballer Alberto Di Chiara, whom he played with during his time at Lecce, helping the cl ...

Club career

youth product, he made his Serie A debut with the club during the

1980–81 Serie A The 1980–81 Serie A season was won by Juventus. Teams Como, Pistoiese and Brescia had been promoted from Serie B. Final classification Results Top goalscorers References and sources *''Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898- ...

season, also winning the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

that year. After two seasons with the club, he was transferred to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

side Reggiana in 1982, making 22 appearances. In 1983, he was acquired by

for the following season. He helped the club achieve an historic first-time promotion to Serie A during the 1984–85 season, his second year with the club. During the

1985–86 Serie A The 1985–86 Serie A season was won by Juventus. Teams Pisa, Lecce and Bari had been promoted from Serie B. They all will be relegated. Events Italy arrived at the top of the UEFA ranking. Final classification Results Top goalscorers ...

season, he played alongside his brother

Stefano Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ach ...

under manager

Eugenio Fascetti Eugenio Fascetti (born 23 October 1938 in Viareggio, Province of Lucca) is an Italian professional football coach and a former player, who played as a midfielder. Honours Player ;Juventus * Serie A champion: 1960–61. Manager * As a coach, won ...

. Between 1986 and 1991, he played with

, collecting 122 appearances and 10 goals in Serie A over five seasons. Although he was initially acquired as a winger in 1986, the club's new Brazilian manager at the time,

Sebastião Lazaroni Sebastião Barroso Lazaroni, (born 25 September 1950) is a Brazilian football manager who last coached Qatar Stars League club Qatar SC. He was born in Muriaé, Minas Gerais state. He is well known in Brazil as the manager who tried to intro ...

decided to deploy him as an attacking full-back or wing-back, in the mould of offensive, Brazilian attacking fullbacks, such as

Djalma Santos Djalma Pereira Dias dos Santos known simply as Djalma Santos (; also spelled Dejalma Santos), (27 February 192923 July 2013) was a Brazilian footballer who started for the Brazil national team in four World Cups, winning two, in 1958 and 196 ...

, due to Di Chiara's pace, technical ability, and his offensive style of play. During his time at the club, he reached the

1990 UEFA Cup Final The 1990 UEFA Cup Final was an association football tie played on 2 May 1990 and 16 May 1990 between Juventus and Fiorentina of Italy. Juventus won 3–1 on aggregate. This was the first final between two Italian sides in the UEFA competit ...

. In 1991, he joined

, where he remained until 1996, during one of the club's most successful periods, playing predominantly in his new full-back role under manager

Nevio Scala Nevio Scala (; born 22 November 1947) is an Italian football sporting director, coach and former player. Throughout his footballing career, he played as a midfielder for several Italian clubs, and won several titles during his time with A.C. Mil ...

, also achieving his first call-up to the national side. During his time at the club, he formed a notable partnership with fellow attacking full-back

Antonio Benarrivo Antonio Benarrivo (; born 21 August 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a defender. One of the best players in the world in his position in the 1990s, Benarrivo was an energetic attacking full-back capable of opera ...

, and he won the

1991–92 Coppa Italia The 1991–92 Coppa Italia, the 45th Coppa Italia was an Italian Football Federation domestic cup competition won by Parma. First round Second round Round of 16 Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final First leg Second leg Parma won 2–1 on ...

, the

1992–93 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1992–93 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup was won by Parma in the final against Royal Antwerp. Both were first time finalists in the competition, and Antwerp were the last Belgian side to reach a European final up to the present day. T ...

, the

1993 UEFA Super Cup The 1993 European Super Cup was contested between AC Milan (the 1992–93 UEFA Champions League runners-upEuropean champions Marseille were suspended due to bribery scandal) and Parma (the 1992–93 European Cup Winners' Cup champions). It was ...

, and the

1994–95 UEFA Cup The 1994–95 UEFA Cup was won by Parma on aggregate over Juventus. Internazionale were the defending champions with a wild card, but were knocked out in the first round by Aston Villa. New format Twenty-two national champions were demoted to t ...

, also achieving runners-up medals in the

1992 Supercoppa Italiana The 1992 Supercoppa Italiana was a match played by the 1991–92 Serie A winners Milan and 1991–92 Coppa Italia winners Parma. It took place on 30 August 1992 at the San Siro in Milan, Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian ...

, the

1994 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match on 4 May 1994 contested between Arsenal of England and Parma of Italy. It was the final match of the 1993–94 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 34th European Cup Winners' Cup final. ...

, and in the 1995 Coppa Italia Final, as well as a third-place finish in Serie A in 1995. After leaving the club in 1996, he ended his career after a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

with

, retiring in 1997.

International career

After representing the Italy under-21 side twice in 1985, Di Chiara also represented the Italian senior national side as a fullback on 7 occasions between 1992 and 1993, while playing for Parma. He was the first ever Parma player to be called up for Italy, making his debut on 31 May 1992, in a 0–0 home draw against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, under manager

Arrigo Sacchi Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...

Style of play

Di Chiara was a consistent and offensive-minded left-footed full-back, who was capable of playing anywhere along the left flank; throughout his career, he was also used as a winger, or as a wing-back. His pace, flair, composure, stamina, technical skills, and attacking instincts enabled him to charge down the wing, beat opponents, and create chances for teammates with accurate

crosses Crosses may refer to: * Cross, the symbol Geography * Crosses, Cher, a French municipality * Crosses, Arkansas, a small community located in the Ozarks of north west Arkansas Language * Crosses, a truce term used in East Anglia and Lincolnshire ...

Honours

Roma *

: 1980–81 Parma *

: 1991–92 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

: 1992–93 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 1994–95

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Chiara, Alberto 1964 births Living people Italian men's footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's international footballers ACF Fiorentina players AS Roma players US Lecce players Parma Calcio 1913 players AC Reggiana 1919 players AC Perugia Calcio players Serie A players Serie B players Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wingers UEFA Cup winning players Footballers from Rome