Joseph Tortolano (born 6 April 1966) is a Scottish retired professional

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 in England, Scotland, and Iceland, making over 300 league appearances.

Career

Club career

Born in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

, Tortolano played for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

, Hibernian,

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

, KR,

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the ...

and

East Stirlingshire East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in 1881 and competes in the , in the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club's origins ca ...

. The bulk of Tortolano's career was spent at Hibernian, where he became somewhat of a cult figure during his eleven-year spell. The player admitted that the harsh criticism he received from supporters over the course of several years of poor performances eventually inspired him to improve his fitness in the early 1990s. While playing for Hibs in

Gordon Rae Gordon Rae (born 3 May 1958) is a retired Scottish footballer, who played mainly as a defender for Hibernian, Partick Thistle, Hamilton Academical and Meadowbank Thistle. He also played sometimes as a centre forward, scoring over 50 goals in ...

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in October 1988, Tortolano was sent off for a mistimed tackle on

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Cove ...

. Tortolano retired as a player in 2001, and joined the

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...

coaching staff.

International career

Tortolano represented the

Scotland national under-21 football team The Scotland national under-21 football team, controlled by the Scottish Football Association, is Scotland's national under 21 football team and is considered to be a feeder team for the Scotland national football team. As a European under-21 t ...

, but never played for the Scottish senior team.

References

External links

* *
Scotland U21 stats
at Fitbastats 1966 births Clyde F.C. players East Stirlingshire F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland Falkirk F.C. players Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Hibernian F.C. players Living people Footballers from Stirling Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Scottish men's footballers Stirling Albion F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players {{scotland-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub