Mauro Bressan (born 5 January 1971) is a retired Italian

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 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 ...

Career

Bressan began his career with AC Milan in 1989, but didn't play any games. In 1991 he transferred to

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

. He moved to

Foggia Calcio Calcio Foggia 1920, commonly referred to as Foggia, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Foggia, Apulia. It currently plays in Serie C, having last been in the top level Serie A in 1995. The team gained nationwide popularity ...

in 1994, and played the

1994–95 Serie A The 1994–95 Serie A was won by Juventus, who finished 10 points ahead of their nearest rivals Parma and Lazio. Two pieces of silverware were seized by Juventus, who won the Coppa Italia against Parma but were beaten by the same opponents in t ...

with the club. He scored once that season, in a match against Cagliari in November 1994. Foggia were relegated that season. Bressan played for

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 ...

from 1995 until their relegation to

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 ...

in 1997. After that he was signed by

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

for two years, making 57 league appearances and scoring one goal in a 4–3 loss against

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 February 1998. His career peaked whilst playing for

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 ...

between 1999 and 2001; although he was not given many league starts, he did start in three Champions League games for the Italian side. Bressan's main fame comes from one of these games, in the 3–3 group stage draw against

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 ...

on 2 November 1999. After 14 minutes he scored what is considered one of the greatest goals of all time, a spectacular 25 yard bicycle kick. An

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

programme on the 50 greatest Champions League goals had it at number 2, behind Zinedine Zidane's title-winning volley against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League Final.

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

also placed this goal as number 8 in their list of the 50 greatest Champions League goals. In the very same game against Barcelona, Bressan combined well with Abel Balbo, providing a spectacular backheel pass to assist Balbo in scoring Fiorentina's second goal of the game. His only league goal in the 1999–2000 season came during a 0–4 away victory against

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...

on the penultimate matchday. He won 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 Fiorentina during the 2000–01 season, making 8 appearances and scoring two goals during the tournament; one in the quarter-finals 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. ...

in November 2000, and one in the semi-finals against AC Milan in January 2001. He also assisted

Paolo Vanoli Paolo Vanoli (; born 12 August 1972) is an Italian professional football coach and a former player who played as a left back or left midfielder. He is the manager of Italian club Venezia. Club career Vanoli, a journeyman, played for many clubs, ...

's goal in the first leg of

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. Bressan played the following season, the

2001–02 Serie A The 2001–02 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 100th season of top-tier Italian football, the 70th in a round-robin tournament. It was composed by 18 teams, for the 14th consecutive time from season 1988–89. ...

season, with Venezia. Bressan played for

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 ...

in the 2002–03 season, where he made 30 league appearances and scored once in a 2–2 draw against Hellas Verona. After that he returned to Como for two years, leaving in 2005 for FC Lugano of the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the ...

. He scored his first goal for Lugano on 11 March 2006 in a 1–1 draw against FC Baden. His second goal came in the 2006–07 league season, a 2–1 victory against FC Vaduz in April 2007. He transferred to

FC Chiasso FC Chiasso is a Swiss football club based in Chiasso. It was founded in 1905. Chiasso also played in the Italian first league between 1914 and 1923. The team's most glorious period was between 1948 and 1961, when the team was promoted to the ...

in 2007. He scored his only goal with the club in a 2–3 victory against

Concordia Basel FC Concordia Basel is a Swiss association football, football club based in Basel. The club was founded in 1907. They play in the 2nd regional league which is the fifth level, and their home stadium was Rankhof Stadium until the 2008-09 season. F ...

on 11 April 2008. At the end of the 2007–08 season, he retired. Bressan worked as the sporting director for Hungarian club Vasas SC of the NB1 during the 2009–10 season.

Match fixing allegations

In June 2011 Bressan was arrested alongside fifteen other people (including former players

Giuseppe Signori Giuseppe "Beppe" Signori (; born 17 February 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for several clubs in Italy throughout his career, and also had spells in Greece and Hungary with Iraklis Thessal ...

and

Stefano Bettarini Stefano Bettarini (; born 6 February 1972) is an Italian retired professional footballer who played as a defender, and a television personality. He played once for the Italy national team. He was a contestant on Grande Fratello VIP, 2016 and ...

) for alleged

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...

, following the outbreak of the 2011–12 Italian football scandal. In August 2012, the FIGC banned Bressan from all football-related activities for three and-a-half years.

Honours

;

: 2000–01

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bressan, Mauro 1971 births Living people People from Valdobbiadene Italian footballers AC Milan players Como 1907 players Calcio Foggia 1920 players Cagliari Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players Venezia F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players FC Chiasso players Serie A players Serie B players Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Men's association football midfielders FC Lugano players Sportspeople from the Province of Treviso Footballers from Veneto