Domenico Marocchino (; born 5 May 1957) is a retired Italian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager, 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 ...

Club career

A former Juventus youth product, Marocchino played in the lower divisions for Juniorcasale and

Cremonese Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

, making 35 appearances in

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

and 35 more 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 ...

respectively, before 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 Coppa ...

debut with

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

, on 17 December 1978, in a 0–0 draw against

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 ...

. In the summer of 1979, he returned to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

, and remained at the club for four seasons, winning two consecutive Serie A titles in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

and

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, and a

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 ...

in 1983. His best season with the club was during the 1981–82 season, when he was given more first team opportunities following an injury to regular starter Roberto Bettega, and helped Juventus to the league title with his consistent and decisive performances. The arrival of Michel Platini and Zbigniew Boniek the following season, coupled with Marocchino's physical decline, saw him struggle to find space in the team, and he left the club at the end of the season. Marocchino later played for

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

in Serie A, and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

in Serie B, before returning to play for Casale in the lower divisions, where he ended his career in 1988. In total, he made 131 appearances in Serie A throughout his career, scoring 11 goals, and 104 appearances in Serie B, scoring 6 goals.

International career

Marocchino made his only international appearance for the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

on 5 December 1981, in a 1–0 home win over

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

in a 1982 FIFA World Cup Qualifying match, held in Naples.

Style of play

Regarded as a talented prospect in his youth, Marocchino, however struggled to live up to his potential in his later career, due to his mentality and inconsistency at the top level. He was capable of playing in several midfield positions, and was used as a winger, as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

, or even as a second striker; his Juventus manager Giovanni Trapattoni often struggled to find a suitable position for him, however, as he deemed him to be inconsistent, and felt his defensive work-rate was too low for him to be deployed as a wide midfielder, but that he was too unreliable in front of goal to be used in a more offensive role. In spite of his tall, large build, Marocchino possessed excellent technique, control, and dribbling skills, which along with his physique, enabled him to defend the ball under pressure, and beat opponents, both in one on one situations or during individual runs. He was also a good passer, who was known for his ability to play the ball on the ground.

Honours

;Juventus *

champion: 1980–81, 1981–82 *

winner: 1982–83 Runner up of the

1982–83 European Cup The 1982–83 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won for the first time by Hamburg, who beat Juventus 1–0 in the final at Athens' Olympic Stadium. It was the first time since 1976 that the trophy did not go to a club from E ...

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marocchino, Domenico 1957 births Living people Footballers from Vercelli Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Casale FBC players US Cremonese players Atalanta BC players Juventus FC players UC Sampdoria players Bologna FC 1909 players Men's association football midfielders