Filippo Galli (born 19 May 1963) is an Italian

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 ...

manager and former player, who played as a defender. He is mostly remembered for his lengthy and successful spell with

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 ...

, where he played alongside Baresi, Maldini, Costacurta, and Tassotti, forming a strong defensive line-up under managers

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 ...

and

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional football manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL 1907, Roma, Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which ...

, in the teams which were respectively known as ''The Immortals'' and ''The Invincibles''; during his 15 seasons with the club, he won five

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 ...

titles and three

UEFA Champions League 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 ...

titles, among other trophies.

Club career

Born in Monza, Galli played for

from 1983 to November 1996, after initially being a member of the club's youth sector. He made his Milan debut in

on 18 September 1983, in a 4–2 home win over

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

. During his 13 seasons with the club, he enjoyed many domestic and international successes under managers

and

, winning five

titles, three

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 ...

s, two Intercontinental Cups, three European Super Cups, and four

Italian Super Cup 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 ...

s; he also scored 4 goals for the club in 325 appearances: 3 in Serie A, in 217 appearances, and 1 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 ...

, with his final goal coming against

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

on 4 September 1991. He was initially an important member of the starting line-up alongside teammates

Franco Baresi Franchino Baresi (; born 8 May 1960) is an Italian football youth team coach and a former player and manager. He mainly played as a sweeper or as a central defender, and spent his entire 20-year career with Serie A club AC Milan, captaining t ...

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 ...

, and

Paolo Maldini Paolo Cesare Maldini (; born 26 June 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played primarily as a left back and centre back for AC Milan and the Italy national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of a ...

, featuring in what is considered to be one of the greatest defences of all time. He played a key role during Milan's 1987–88 Serie A triumph, as Milan only conceded 12 goals in 30 league games, finishing with the best defence in Italy. However, due to injuries, and the emergence of

Alessandro Costacurta Alessandro Costacurta (born 24 April 1966) is an Italian football pundit, manager and a former professional defender, who usually played as a centre back. Throughout his club career, Costacurta spent over twenty years with AC Milan between 19 ...

in his position, he began to find less space in the starting line-up, and was usually used as a substitute in later years, although he was still able to contribute to important victories with the club, notably helping Milan to keep a clean-sheet with a dominant defensive performance, as they defeated

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

4–0 in the 1994 UEFA Champions League Final. Before joining the Milan senior side, Galli initially made his professional debut whilst on loan with

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

during the 1982–83 season. Following his time with Milan, he was sold to Reggiana in 1996, another

team. After two seasons with Reggiana, he moved to

for two seasons, helping the club to Serie A promotion, during the 1999–2000 Serie B season, and subsequently helping the team to avoid relegation and qualify for the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup the following season, playing alongside Roberto Baggio, under manager

Carlo Mazzone Carlo "Carletto" Mazzone (born 19 March 1937 in Rome) is an Italian retired professional association footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. Playing career Mazzone played several seasons for A.S. Roma, as well as for SPAL and Ascoli ...

. At the age of 38, he successively spent a season at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

whilst Gianluca Vialli was the team's manager, scoring once against

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

International career

Galli never played for the Italy senior team, although he was capped for the Italy under-21 side on 7 occasions between 1984 and 1987, and he took part with Italy at the 1984 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, where they reached the semi-final. He was also a member of Italy's squad 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 secon ...

, where they managed a fourth-place finish.

Style of play

A composed, consistent, intelligence, tenacious, and tactically versatile player, with excellent technique, distribution, Galli was known for his man-marking ability and defensive awareness; an attentive player, he excelled at reading the game, and was usually used as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, although he was often called on to fill in at any defensive position, and also played at

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, and as sweeper on occasion. Despite his ability, he often struggled with injuries throughout his career, and predominantly served as a back-up in his later career, following the emergence of younger players.

After retirement

Galli retired in 2004, aged 41, after two seasons with minor

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 ...

2 club

Pro Sesto Pro Sesto 1913 S.r.l. (formerly ''Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Nuova Pro Sesto'' and initially ''Associazione Calcio Pro Sesto'') is an association football club, based in Sesto San Giovanni, Lombardy, Italy. Pro Sesto currently plays ...

. Following his retirement, he began a coaching career, and he has been responsible for the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

for many years. In August 2008, he began working for the first team, and he became Carlo Ancelotti's assistant-coach, alongside his former teammate Tassotti. Following Ancelotti's departure in 2009, he became a technical assistant of then-new head coach

Leonardo Araújo Leonardo Nascimento de Araújo (born 5 September 1969), known as Leonardo Araújo or simply Leonardo, is a Brazilian football executive and former player and manager. He last served as the sporting director of Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain ...

. Galli also worked as a pundit on occasion. In September 2012, he began the coaching course in Coverciano.

Honours

Club

Milan *

Winner (5): 1987–88, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96; Runner-up (2): 1989–90, 1990–91. *

Runner-up (2): 1984–85, 1989–90. * Supercoppa Italiana Winner (4):

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 ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, 1993,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

; Runner-up (1): 1996. *

Winner (3): 1988–89, 1989–90, 1993–94; Runner-up (2): 1992–93, 1994–95. *

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 ...

Winner (3): 1989,

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 ...

; Runner-up (1): 1993. * Intercontinental Cup Winner (2): 1989,

; Runner-up (2): 1993,

Individual

* A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

legend

References

External links

* *
FIGC

A.C. Milan Roll of Honour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galli, Filippo 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Monza Association football defenders Italian footballers Italian football managers A.C. Milan players S.S.D. Pro Sesto players A.C. Reggiana 1919 players Delfino Pescara 1936 players Brescia Calcio players Watford F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italy under-21 international footballers Olympic footballers of Italy Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England UEFA Champions League winning players Footballers from Lombardy People from Brianza Italian expatriate sportspeople in England