Stefano Salvatori (29 December 1967 – 31 October 2017) was an Italian 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 ...

. A tenacious, physically strong, and hard-working player, known for his energetic and tough-tackling style of play, he usually played as a

central 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 ...

, but was also capable of playing as a

defensive 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 ...

, as a full-back or

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He played for several clubs in his homeland, including

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 ...

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 ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

, and the Scottish club Heart of Midlothian. Salvatori also represented Italy in under-21 and B international matches.

Playing career

Club

After starting his youth career with local side Lodigiani, Salvatori joined the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

in 1985; after struggling to find space in the first team, he was initially sent on loan to lower division teams Virescit Boccaleone and

in order to gain experience and playing time; with Virescit, he managed a third-place finish in the 1987–88

Serie C1/A Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest 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. Before the 1978� ...

, but the club lost out to

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are n ...

in the

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 ...

play-offs. He later joined

in 1988, where he made his

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 ...

debut, helping the club to qualify for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

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 ...

. He returned to Milan for a second spell with the club, during which he won the 1989 European Super Cup over

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 ...

under manager

Arrigo Sacchi Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...

, appearing as a defender in the first leg, a 1–1 away draw. Milan also reached the

1990 European Cup Final The 1990 European Cup Final was a football match between Milan of Italy and Benfica of Portugal, played on 23 May 1990 at the Praterstadion in Vienna, Austria. The winning goal came in the 68th minute for Milan, when Frank Rijkaard ran through th ...

that season, and subsequently won the competition following a 1–0 victory over Benfica, but Salvatori did not feature in the squad for the final; he made one appearance in the competition, in the first leg of the quarter-finals, against Belgian side KV Mechelen, coming on as a substitute for

Angelo Colombo Angelo Colombo (born 24 February 1961) is an Italian former footballer who played for Milan as a midfielder, and was part of their European Cup victories in 1989 and 1990. He is now a scout for the club. Club career Angelo Colombo began his care ...

, and was an unused substitute in first leg of the semi-finals against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. He also appeared as a substitute in the second leg of the Coppa Italia Final that year, which ended in a 1–0 home defeat to

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 ...

, who ultimately won the tournament on aggregate. After still struggling to find space in the Milan first team, Salvatori returned to Fiorentina midway through the 1990–91 season, and remained with the club until 1992, making a total of 45 appearances in Serie A across his three seasons with the team, and scoring one goal. He then transferred to

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly known as S.P.A.L. (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The team plays in Serie B, the second tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1907, since ...

, and later joined

, helping the latter club to win promotion to Serie A in 1995, and subsequently reach the Coppa Italia final in 1996. In 1996, Salvatori moved abroad to play for Hearts in Scotland. He was a member of the side that won the 1998 Scottish Cup Final in a 2–1 victory over Rangers on 16 May, the first time the Edinburgh-based side had won the title in 42 years; as a result, he still remains a popular figure with the club's fans. He scored one league goal during his spell at Hearts, in a 3–1 win at

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

. After three seasons in Scotland, collecting a total of 84 appearances and 3 goals across all competitions, Salvatori returned to Italy in 1999, where he ended his career in the lower divisions with

Alzano Virescit Virtus CiseranoBergamo 1909 is an football in Italy, Italian association football club from Ciserano, Lombardy. It was born in 2019 as a merger of ''Ciserano Calcio'' and ''Virtus Bergamo'', itself a direct heir of ''Alzano Virescit'', a club th ...

, AlbinoLeffe, and

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the north-westernmost part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Le ...

, retiring in 2002.

International

At international level, Salvatori was capped 13 times for the Italy Under-21 side between 1989 and 1990.

After retirement

After retiring from professional football, Salvatori worked as a coach in Italy with Legnano and

Voghera The Castle of Voghera in a 19th-century etching. Voghera ( Vogherese dialect of Emilian: ''Vughera''; Latin: ''Forum Iulii Iriensium'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy. The population was 39,374 ...

; he later returned to Scotland in 2011 to work as a football agent, before moving to Australia in 2013, where he managed a series of football academies, focussing on the development of young local talent in the areas of Brisbane and Sydney.

Death

Salvatori died on 31 October 2017, aged 49, from cancer.

Honours

;Milan *

runner-up: 1989–90. *

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 ...

runner-up: 1989–90. *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

winner:

. *

UEFA Champions League 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 ...

winner: 1989–90. ;Hearts *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

References

External links

*
Profile at tuttocalciatori.net
*
Profile at FIGC
*

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salvatori, Stefano 1967 births 2017 deaths Italian footballers Italy under-21 international footballers Parma Calcio 1913 players Serie A players Serie C players ACF Fiorentina players A.C. Milan players S.P.A.L. players Atalanta B.C. players Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Scotland Italian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Scottish Premier League players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players U.C. AlbinoLeffe players A.C. Legnano players Virtus Bergamo Alzano Seriate 1909 players Scottish Football League players Association football midfielders Italy B international footballers