Marco Bollesan (7 July 1941 – 11 April 2021) was an Italian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player, coach and manager.

Biography

Born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

; later he got a job as iron worker at the Italsider and started playing rugby as senior at the CUS Genoa Rugby (the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa, known also with the acronym UniGe ( it, Università di Genova), is one of the largest universities in Italy. It is located in the city of Genoa and regional Metropolitan City of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguri ...

rugby union team). During the

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

period he practiced rowing for the Italian National Military selection, but afterwards he returned to rugby. He made his international debut with the Italian team in 1963 at

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(Italy lost 12-14). Until 1975 he won 47 full caps and played 37 matches as captain. In 1965 he moved from Genoa to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

to play with the

Partenope ''Partenope'' ("Parthenope", HWV 27) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, first performed at the King's Theatre in London on 24 February 1730. Although following the structure and forms of opera seria, the work is humorous in character and li ...

that had just won the Italian championship. In order to get that the Neapolitan club's managed to get from Italsider the moving of the player from Genoa to the steel mill located in

Bagnoli Bagnoli is a western seaside quarter of Naples, Italy, well beyond the confines of the original city. It is beyond Cape Posillipo and, thus, looking on the coast of the Bay of Pozzuoli. Industrialization and World War II Bagnoli was one of ...

, near Naples. In 1966 Partenope won its second in a row - and to date, last - Championship. In 1967 Bollesan moved to

, then, in 1974 to Brescia winning another Championship in 1975. He was then at Amatori Rugby Milano, until 1981 as player and until 1985 as coach. From 1985 to 1988 he was the Italian National Team's head coach and took part at the 1987 Rugby World Cup. Later he managed Rugby Livorno, CUS Genova and Rugby Alghero. In 1997, when Amatori Milano was facing dire straits due to lack of money, he offered to coach the team for free. From 2003 to the 2008 Six Nations he was responsible for public relations for the

Italian Rugby Federation The Italian Rugby Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Rugby) or FIR is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy. The FIR has one seat on the 28-member World Rugby Council, the governing body of World Rugby. (All other members of ...

, and was the chairman of ''SportinGenova'', a company that manages all the sport venues owned by the ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' of

. Bollesan died on 11 April 2021.

Honours

As player

*2 Italian Championships: ** Partenope 1965-1966 ** Rugby Brescia 1974-1975 * Italy national rugby union team: 47 full caps (37 as captain) 1963-1975

As coach

* Manager of the Italian team at the 1987 Rugby World Cup.

Awards

On 7 May 2015, in the presence of the President of

Italian National Olympic Committee The Italian National Olympic Committee ( it, Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano, CONI), founded in 1914 and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is responsible for the development and management of sports activity in Italy. ...

(CONI),

Giovanni Malagò Giovanni Malagò (born 13 March 1959) is an Italian businessman, sports manager and former futsal player. He is the current president of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI). Since 1 January 2019 he is a member of the International Ol ...

, was inaugurated in the

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

of the

Foro Italico Foro Italico is a sports complex in Rome, Italy, on the slopes of Monte Mario. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini (literally Mussolini's Forum) under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, later, Luigi Moretti. Inspired ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, along ''Viale delle Olimpiadi'', the Walk of Fame of Italian sport, consisting of 100 tiles that chronologically report names of the most representative athletes in the history of Italian sport. On each tile are the name of the sportsman, the sport in which he distinguished himself and the symbol of CONI. One of these tiles is dedicated to Marco Bollesan.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bollesan, Marco 1941 births 2021 deaths Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Venice Italian rugby union players Italian rugby union coaches University of Genoa alumni Italy national rugby team coaches Italy international rugby union players Rugby union number eights