Beniamino Vignola (born 12 June 1959 in

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

) 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 ...

and entrepreneur, who played 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 ...

. He notably played for Juventus and was part of their European Cup victory in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. A small, quick, mobile, agile, and creative player, with excellent technical ability and a slender physique, he usually played as a central or

attacking 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 ...

; considered a promising talent, he was compared to

Gianni Rivera Giovanni "Gianni" Rivera (; born 18 August 1943) is an Italian politician and former footballer who played as a midfielder. During his career as a footballer he was mostly utilised as an attacking midfielder. Dubbed Italy's "Golden Boy" by the ...

as a youngster.

Club career

Vignola began his career with

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

, making 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 Cop ...

debut in 1978. In 1980, he moved to Avellino, where he remained for three seasons, wearing the number 10 shirt. He was notably acquired by Juventus in 1983 for 4.8 billion Lire, as a back-up to

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (born 21 June 1955) is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, a ...

, remaining at the club until 1988. Despite initially featuring mainly as a substitute, he later became a member of the starting line-up, and he helped Juventus to win the Serie A title and the

European 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 ...

during the 1983–84 season. He scored two goals against Udinese that season and also scored and set-up Boniek's match-winning goal in the

1984 European Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1984 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match contested between Juventus of Italy and Porto of Portugal. It was the final match of the 1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 24th European Cup Winners' Cup final. It was held at ...

, as Juventus beat

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

2–1 in Basel. The following season, he won the 1984 European Super Cup with Juventus, and he was part of their European Cup victory in

. In 1988, he moved to Empoli in

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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 season. It had been ...

, where he was unable to prevent the club from being relegated to Serie C1 during the 1988–89 season. He ended his career in 1992, playing in Serie C2 with Mantova. He would later become the team's sporting director during the 1993–94 season. After the team went bankrupt, he became a player-manager with an amateur side in Verona called San Martino Buon Albergo, and he soon retired from football.

International career

Vignola represented the Italy under-21 side on 5 occasions, scoring 2 goals. He played for the Italy at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

in Los Angeles, where the Italians reached the semi-finals, finishing the tournament in fourth place. He never appeared for the Italian senior side.

Honours

;Juventus *

: 1983–84 * European Cup: 1984–85 *

: 1983–84 * European Super Cup:

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vignola, Beniamino 1959 births Living people Footballers from Verona Italian footballers Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Italy Italy under-21 international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Hellas Verona F.C. players Juventus F.C. players Empoli F.C. players Mantova 1911 players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Association football midfielders