Roberto Cravero (born 3 January 1964) is an Italian former 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 ...

who played as a defender. He was usually deployed in the role of sweeper/libero.

Club career

During his club career he played mostly for

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

(1981–1992 and 1995–98), also playing for

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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 season. It had been ...

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. ...

on loan for two seasons (1983–85), and later for

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

(1992–95), where he managed to help the club to a second-place finish during the 1994–95 season. Throughout his career, he became Torino's captain, and he helped the Turin side to win the 1989–90 Serie B title, gaining promotion to

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 Cop ...

the following season, as well as the 1991

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

. He also helped his team to 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 ...

final in 1982, and to reach the

1992 UEFA Cup final The 1992 UEFA Cup Final was played on 29 April 1992 and 13 May 1992 between Ajax of the Netherlands and Torino of Italy. Ajax won on away goals after a 2–2 draw in the first leg in Turin and a 0–0 draw in the second in Amsterdam. The victor ...

. He retired with Torino in

, in 1998.

International career

Cravero played for Italy at youth level, reaching the final of the

1986 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 1986 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 5th staging of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship. The qualifying stage spanned two years (1984–86), had 29 entrants. Spain U-21s won the competition after a penalty shootout, the first ...

, under manager Cesare Maldini; in total he managed 12 appearances and 1 goal between 1984 and 1990 with the under-21 side. He never represented Italy at senior level, however, despite being named in the Italian team that took part in the

1988 UEFA European Football Championship The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The tournament crowned the Nethe ...

under

Azeglio Vicini Azeglio Vicini (; 20 March 1933 – 30 January 2018) was an Italian football coach and player, who also served as the President of the Technical Sector of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). One of Italy's most important coaches during ...

, reaching the semi-finals. He also participated in 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 ...

, where the Under-23 Olympic side also reached the semi-finals, finishing the tournament in fourth place; in total he made 12 appearances with the under-23 side between 1987 and 1988.

Honours

Torino *

: 1989–90 *

: 1991

References

1964 births Living people Italian footballers Italy under-21 international footballers Olympic footballers of Italy Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Association football defenders UEFA Euro 1988 players Torino F.C. players A.C. Cesena players S.S. Lazio players Serie A players Serie B players {{Italy-footy-defender-1960s-stub