Antonio Pietro Paolo Virdis (born 26 June 1957) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Throughout his career, he played for Nuorese, before playing 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 ...

with

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 ...

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Football in Italy, Italian association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a ...

, and

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 ...

; he ended his career with

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

. Known for his eye for goal, with Juventus, he won two league titles and a

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 Milan, he was the league's top scorer in 1987, also winning a league title and the

Supercoppa Italiana 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 ...

in 1988, and was part of the club's

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 ...

victory in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

. At international level, he represented

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

, helping the team to a fourth-place finish.

Club career

Born in

Sassari Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...

, Italy, Virdis started his career in his native

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

with amateur

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

side Nuorese in 1973, scoring 11 goals in his first senior season at the young age of 16. He later joined

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 ...

, making his

debut on 6 October 1974 in a league game versus Lanerossi Vicenza. In 1977, he joined

, where he played until 1982, except for a one-year stint back at Cagliari in 1980–81. After failing to find a first team place, in 1982 he left Juventus for

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

. In 1984, he then moved at

, where he enjoyed his best period at club level. He made his

debut with the club in a 2–1 away defeat to

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

on 22 August 1984, and he played five seasons with the ''rossoneri'', winning the Serie A top-scorer title during the 1986–87 season, with 17 goals; he also won the

1987–88 Serie A The 1987–88 Serie A was won by Milan. Teams Pescara, Pisa and Cesena had been promoted from Serie B. Season summary The summer of 1987 brought several notable players into the Italian championship: Vincenzo Scifo (for Internazionale), Ian R ...

title, and the

1988 Supercoppa Italiana The 1988 Supercoppa Italiana was a match played by the 1987–88 Serie A winners Milan and 1987–88 Coppa Italia winners Sampdoria. It took place on 14 June 1989 at the San Siro in Milan, Italy, and was the first edition of the trophy. Milan won ...

with the club, followed by the

1988–89 European Cup The 1988–89 European Cup was the 34th season of the European Cup football club tournament. The competition was won for the first time since 1969, and third time overall, by Milan comfortably in the final against former winners Steaua Bucureșt ...

. In total, he made 186 appearances for Milan, scoring 76 goals, 53 of which were scored in Serie A in 135 appearances. In 1989, aged 32, he left AC Milan to join

, where he spent his final two seasons as a professional footballer before retiring in 1991.

International career

Although he never gained a cap for the senior squad, he helped the Italian Olympic team qualify for

Seoul 1988 The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

. In the tournament, he went on to score three goals in six matches as Italy reached the semi-finals, losing out 2–0 to

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 bronze medal final. Before this he competed in the

1982 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship __NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 ''Ab u ...

with the Italy U21 national team.

Managerial career

After retiring from active football, Virdis tried to pursue a career as a manager. In November 1998 he took his first managerial role, becoming head coach of

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 ...

club

Atletico Catania Unione Sportiva Dilettantistica Atletico Catania is an Italian association football club founded in 1967 and based in Catania, Sicily. Throughout its history, the club played extensively at Serie C1 and Serie C2 professional level, almost gaini ...

, being however fired later in April 1999. He then returned into management in March 2001, accepting an offer from Viterbese of Serie C1. However, his stint lasted a mere two months, as he was fired in May of that year. In April 2002 he then accepted a managerial role at Nocerina, leading the team for the final few weeks of the season. He later left football and opened a restaurant and wine bar in Milan. However, in July 2008 he stated his interest in getting back into management.

Career statistics

Honours

Juventus *

: 1977–78, 1981–82 *

: 1978–79 A.C. Milan *

: 1987–88 *

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 ...

: 1988–89 Individual *

top scorer: 1986–87 *A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

References

External links

Virdis profile at rsssf.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virdis, Pietro Paolo 1957 births Living people People from Sassari Footballers from Sardinia Association football forwards Italy under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Italy Italian footballers Italian football managers A.C. Milan players Cagliari Calcio players Juventus F.C. players Udinese Calcio players U.S. Lecce players Nuorese Calcio players Serie A players Serie B players Serie D players