Angelo Colombo (born 24 February 1961) is an Italian former

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

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, and was part of their

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

victories in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. He is now a scout for the club.

Club career

Angelo Colombo began his career with the

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

in 1979, first with the youth squad, at the age of 13, and later making his professional debut with the club in

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 ...

. In 1984, he was acquired by Pierpaolo Marino's

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

side, and he made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

debut with the club on 16 September 1984, in a 0–0 home draw against

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 ...

. The following season, he transferred to

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

, in 1985, and in 1987, he was bought by

, 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 ...

, making his club debut in 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 ...

on 23 August 1987, in a 5–0 win over Bari. He enjoyed a successful three-season spell with Milan, winning the 1987–88 Serie A title, the

1988 Supercoppa Italiana The 1988 Supercoppa Italiana was a match played by the 1987–88 Serie A winners Milan and 1987–88 Coppa Italia winners Sampdoria. It took place on 14 June 1989 at the San Siro in Milan, Italy, and was the first edition of the trophy. Milan won ...

, consecutive

s ( 1988–89 and 1989–90), as well as the 1989 Intercontinental Cup, and the 1989 European Super Cup, with his final appearance coming in Milan's 1–0 victory over Benfica in the

1990 European Cup Final The 1990 European Cup Final was a football match between Milan of Italy and Benfica of Portugal, played on 23 May 1990 at the Praterstadion in Vienna, Austria. The winning goal came in the 68th minute for Milan, when Frank Rijkaard ran through th ...

on 23 May; in total he made 115 appearances for the club between 1987 and 1990, scoring 7 goals, all of which came in his 77 Serie A appearances with the club. In 1990, he moved to

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

, at the request of Salvemini, to replace Carbone, who had recently been purchased by his former club Milan. In 1992, he left the club, temporarily retiring from football, although in 1994, he returned to football, signing for Australian side

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a social ...

, with whom he ended his career after the 1994–95 season.

International career

Although he was never capped for the Italian senior side, Colombo played for the Italy Under-21 side at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

, where they reached the semi-finals, finishing the tournament in fourth place.

Style of play

Colombo was capable of playing both as a

wide midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

on either flank (although he was usually deployed on the right) and in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Although not particularly prolific, talented, or skilful from a technical standpoint, he was known for being a quick, determined, selfless, and energetic team player, who was often involved in the build-up of the team's attacking plays. However, he stood out in particular for his stamina, tenacity, intelligence, attacking movement off the ball, and defensive work-rate, as well as his ball-winning abilities, which made him a key player in Sacchi's legendary Milan side of the late 80s, and which allowed him to contribute at both ends of the pitch. Along with his partner

Alberigo Evani Alberico Evani (; born 1 January 1963), sometimes misspelled as Alberigo Evani, is an Italian football manager and former player, who was deployed as a midfielder. He started his club career with Milan, where he spent the majority of his playin ...

on the opposite flank, he was often tasking with covering defensively for the overlapping runs of Milan's attacking full-backs, namely

Mauro Tassotti Mauro Tassotti (; born in Rome, 19 January 1960) is an Italian manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a right-back. He currently serves as an assistant coach at Genoa. After making his Serie A debut with Lazio, he went on to ...

on the right, while his defensive skills also enabled him to form a strong partnership with fellow holding midfielder

Frank Rijkaard Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard (; born 30 September 1962) is a Dutch former footballer and former manager who played as a defensive midfielder. Rijkaard played for Ajax, Real Zaragoza and AC Milan and represented the Netherlands national team side ...

in midfield. Sacchi himself once even described Colombo as being "tactically more important than Maradona." In addition to his qualities as a player, he also stood out for his long blonde hair.

Managerial career

After retiring, Colombo coached the Milan youth side for five years, and later became a their co-ordinator for four more years, and subsequently a scout for the team. On 26 January 2009, he signed a contract to coach

Montebelluna Montebelluna is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, Italy, approximately northwest of Venice. It has an estimated population of 32,000. Montebelluna borders the following municipalities: Altivole, Caerano di San Marco, Cornuda, Crocetta del Montello ...

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

, replacing Gianfranco Borgato, and saving the team from relegation in the play-off against Somma. In May 2010, he took charge of

Carpenedolo Carpenedolo (Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, northern Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in ...

during the 2009–10 Lega Pro Second Division play-offs against Villacidrese, which ended with the club's relegation to Serie D at the end of the season. The following season, the team were defeated in the Serie D play-off against Mobilieri Ponsacco, but the team were not relegated to the Eccellenza League, as they were re-drawn. On 30 October 2011, Colombo was sacked, as the team were second last during the 2011–12 Serie D season.

Honours

Club

Milan *

: 1987–88 *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

: 1988–89, 1989–90 * European Super Cup:

* Intercontinental Cup:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colombo, Angelo 1961 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Monza e Brianza Italian footballers Italian expatriate footballers Olympic footballers of Italy Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics National Soccer League (Australia) players Italian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate soccer players in Australia Serie A players A.C. Milan players A.C. Monza players S.S.C. Bari players Marconi Stallions FC players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Udinese Calcio players Association football midfielders Italian football managers Serie D managers Footballers from Lombardy