Enrico "Ricky" Albertosi (; born 2 November 1939) 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Regarded as one of Italy's greatest ever goalkeepers, he had a successful club career, winning titles with

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 fol ...

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

, and

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 ...

, before retiring with Elpidiense. He also played for the Italy national team in the 1966 World Cup and the 1970 World Cup, in which Italy reached the final, as well as being a member of the Italy teams that took part in the 1962 and 1974 World Cups. Albertosi was also included in the Italy squad that won the 1968 European Championship.

Club career

Born in

Pontremoli Pontremoli (; local egl, Pontrémal; la, Apua) is a small city, ''comune'' former Latin Catholic bishopric in the province of Massa and Carrara, Tuscany region, central Italy. Literally translated, Pontremoli means "Trembling Bridge" (from ''pon ...

, at club youth level, Albertosi represented the

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest cit ...

youth academy for a season, before making his debut in

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 ...

at the age of 18 for

on 18 January 1959, playing in a goalless draw with

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

. Despite heavy competition from

Giuliano Sarti Giuliano Sarti (; 2 October 1933 – 5 June 2017) was an Italian professional football player, who played in the position of goalkeeper. Throughout his successful career, he played for several Italian clubs, although he is mostly remembered for h ...

during his first five seasons at the Tuscan club, where he initially mainly served as a back-up, Albertosi represented Fiorentina until 1968, winning a

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

in 1966, a

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 ...

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

(the first ever edition of the competition), and 2

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 ...

trophies in 1961 and 1966. He later transferred to Luigi Riva's side,

Cagliari Calcio Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. In the 2022-23 season, they compete in Serie B. As of 2021–22, the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,416-seat ...

, where he helped to win Cagliari's legendary first and only Scudetto during the 1969–70 season, his second season with the Sardinian club, recording what was at the time the lowest number of goals conceded in a 16-team Serie A campaign. He later transferred to

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

in 1974, where he remained for six years, and he won yet another

championship medal with the club during the 1978–79 season, along with another

during the 1976–77 season. With 233 appearances for the club, he is Milan's fifth-most capped keeper of all time, behind only

Christian Abbiati Christian Abbiati (born 8 July 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Abbiati, who had been with AC Milan since 1998, started his career with Monza, and later played more than 300 official matches for Mil ...

(380),

Sebastiano Rossi Sebastiano Rossi (born 20 July 1964) is an Italian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. During a 21-year professional career, he appeared in 346 Serie A games, most notably representing A.C. Milan (12 seasons) with which ...

(330),

Dida In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Diploma in Digital Applications (DiDA) is an optional information and communication technology (ICT) course, usually studied by Key Stage 4 or equivalent school students (aged 14-16). DiDA was introduc ...

(302), and

Lorenzo Buffon Lorenzo Buffon (, ; born 19 December 1929) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Throughout his career, he played 277 times for Italian club A.C. Milan, and also later played for their city rivals Inter Milan, as well as ...

(300).

Serie A 1974-75 - AC Milan v Varese - Albertosi, Zecchini, De Vecchi

Albertosi was involved with the Italian " Totonero" betting scandal of 1980 and was ultimately suspended for 2 seasons. After Italy won the 1982 World Cup in Spain, the Italian football federation decided to let him play again. He ended his career in 1984, after playing two seasons with Elpidiense in Serie C2, at the age of 44. With 532 Serie A appearances, he is the 10th-highest appearance holder of all time in

International career

Albertosi made his debut for the Italy national team on 15 September 1961, in a 4–1 friendly victory against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in Florence, under manager

Giovanni Ferrari Giovanni Ferrari (; 6 December 1907 – 2 December 1982) was an Italian footballer who played as an attacking midfielder/inside forward on the left. He is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, one of Italy's best ever players, ...

. His final international game took place in June 1972, when Italy drew 1–1 in a friendly match with

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, held in Sofia. Under new manager

Edmondo Fabbri Edmondo Fabbri (16 November 1921 – 8 July 1995) was an Italian football player and coach; a fast player, he mainly played as a winger. Playing career Fabbri was born in Castel Bolognese. During his club career, he played for several teams. H ...

, Albertosi became a regular in Italy's squad; he played his first World Cup with Italy in England 1966, where they were surprisingly and disappointingly knocked out in the first round. In the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Albertosi was once again named Italy's starting goalkeeper, due to his excellent and consistent performances throughout the season with Cagliari. He started in all of Italy's matches, and was involved in the so-called " Game of the Century", when Italy played

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in the semi-final of the tournament; despite conceding three goals in this match, and some moments of hesitation and indecisiveness, Albertosi later won praise for a string of decisive acrobatic saves. He is also remembered for berating

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 ...

during the match, following the playmaker's error when defending a set-piece, which led to Germany's equaliser: Rivera briefly stepped away from the post, leaving it unmarked, and allowing

Gerd Müller Gerhard "Gerd" Müller (; 3 November 1945 – 15 August 2021) was a German professional footballer. A striker renowned for his clinical finishing, especially in and around the six-yard box, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalsco ...

to score his second goal to tie the match at 3–3 in the 110th minute; Rivera later redeemed himself by scoring the match-winner a minute later. Albertosi later appeared in the 1970 World Cup Final, where Italy became tournament runners-up as they lost 4–1 to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Albertosi was also an unused squad member in the 1962 World Cup in Chile under Ferrari, behind Lorenzo Buffon and

Carlo Mattrel Carlo Mattrel (; 14 April 1937 – 25 September 1976) was an Italian footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. During his career, he was regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in Italy, and had a highly successful career at club level playing for ...

, and at the 1974 World Cup, behind his perceived career rival

Dino Zoff Dino Zoff (; born 28 February 1942) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the oldest ever winner of the World Cup, which he earned as captain of the Italian national team in the 1982 tournament, at th ...

, with whom he often faced competition for the Italy number 1 shirt due to the coaches' rotation policy. Albertosi was similarly an unused back-up goalkeeper behind Zoff at the 1968 European Football Championship, which Italy won on home soil, although he later managed to fight off competition from Zoff for a place in the starting line-up at the 1970 World Cup. He missed out on a place as Italy's third goalkeeper at the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

, however. In total, he played 34 times for the national team between 1961 and 1972.

Style of play

Albertosi was a physically strong, eccentric, whimsical, and athletic goalkeeper, with a hot temper; he is regarded as one of the greatest and most spectacular Italian goalkeepers of all time and one of the best of his generation, due to his outstanding technical and physical attributes. An extroverted footballer, he was an efficient yet creative goalkeeper, who was known in particular for his reactions, speed, agility, and ability to produce decisive, acrobatic and spectacular saves; however, in spite of his reputation, longevity, and general consistency, at times he was also criticised for his poor work-rate and mentality throughout his career, as well as his humorous, light-hearted and undisciplined character, which occasionally had a negative impact on the consistency of his performances.

Honours

Club

;Fiorentina *

: 1960–61, 1965–66 *

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 ...

: 1960–61 *

: 1966 ;Cagliari *

: 1969–70 ;Milan *

: 1978–79 *

: 1976–77

International

;Italy *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

: Runner-up:

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

: 1968

Individual

*Fiorentina Hall of Fame: 2018

References

External links

Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albertosi, Enrico 1939 births A.C. Milan players Cagliari Calcio players 1962 FIFA World Cup players 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players ACF Fiorentina players Association football goalkeepers Italian footballers Italy international footballers Living people Serie A players Serie C players Serie D players Spezia Calcio players UEFA Euro 1968 players UEFA European Championship-winning players Sportspeople from the Province of Massa-Carrara Footballers from Tuscany