Francesco Rizzo (; 30 May 1943 – 17 July 2022) was an 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.

Club career

Born in

Rovito Rovito ( Calabrian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Geography The town is located in the western suburb of Cosenza, near the Sila mountain range. It borders with the municipalitie ...

, in the

province of Cosenza The province of Cosenza ( it, provincia di Cosenza) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Cosenza. It contains 150 ''comuni'', listed at list of communes of the Province of Cosenza ...

, Rizzo began playing football with Cosenza. After spells with Milan and Alessandria, he joined Cagliari where he made his Serie A debut against Fiorentina on 29 November 1964. During his club career he played for

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria ...

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 ...

, Fiorentina, Bologna, Catanzaro, Cesena and Genoa.

International career

At international level, Rizzo earned two caps and scored two goals for the Italy national team in 1966, and was part of the Italian squad for the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

References

External links

*
Profile at enciclopediadelcalcio.it
*
Profile at FIGC
* 1943 births 2022 deaths Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Italy men's international footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Cosenza Calcio players US Alessandria Calcio 1912 players Cagliari Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players Bologna FC 1909 players US Catanzaro 1929 players AC Cesena players Genoa CFC players Footballers from the Province of Cosenza {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1940s-stub