Sebastiano Nela (; born 13 March 1961) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender, usually as an offensive-minded full-back due to his crossing ability with his left foot, as well as his speed, stamina, tenacity, physical strength, and work-rate, which enabled him to make attacking runs down the wing and track back to defend his opponents. A versatile and hard-tackling player, he was capable of playing anywhere across the back-line, both on the left or right flanks, and even in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

, and was even deployed 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 ...

on occasion, a position which he had often occupied in his youth. He began his club career with

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, and later moved to

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, where he spent most of his career, winning a

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 ...

title and three

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 ...

titles; he retired in 1994, after two seasons

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. At international level, he represented the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

on five occasions between 1984 and 1987, and participated at the 1986 FIFA World Cup and the 1984 Olympics. He is a member of the A.S. Roma Hall of Fame.

Club career

A surly and hard-working left-footed defender, Nela began his career with

. He was bought by

side

, making his debut in a 0–0 draw with Avellino on 13 September 1981. He made 28 appearances for the Roma team that won the Scudetto in 1983. Nela was badly injured to his knee in an accident in 1987 and was forced to miss almost a year of football. The singer

Antonello Venditti Antonio "Antonello" Venditti (born 8 March 1949) is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist who became famous in the 1970s for the social themes of his songs. Biography Antonello Venditti was born in Rome, the son of Vincenzino Italo Venditti f ...

dedicated his song "Correndo correndo", which appears on his 1988 album ''

In questo mondo di ladri ''In questo mondo di ladri'' (English: In this world of thieves) is an album by Italian musician Antonello Venditti. It was released in 1988 by Heinz Music to commercial success, reaching no.1 on the Italian charts and selling more than 1.5 milli ...

'', to Nela. Nela left Roma in 1992 to join

having won the Scudetto and three Italian cups. He retired after the 1993–94 season having made a total of 315 appearances in Serie A.

International career

Nela's performances for Roma earned him a call-up to the

Italian national team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

, making his debut against

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 ...

on 22 May 1984. Nela made a total of five appearances for the Italian national team between 1984 and 1987. Nela was a member of the Italian squad for the 1986 FIFA World Cup, although he did not play; Italy went out in the round of 16. He also made three appearances at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, helping Italy to a fourth-place finish in the tournament.

After retirement

Following his retirement, Nela has worked as a commentator for various national and satellite channels; he currently works for

Mediaset Premium Mediaset Premium was an Italian pay TV provider owned by Mediaset. Until closure in 2019, it provided subscription TV channels and pay-per-view events (only for football matches) via the Italian digital terrestrial television network through the ...

Honours

Club

Roma *

: 1982–83 *

: 1983–84, 1985–86,

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Individual

* A.S. Roma Hall of Fame: 2013

References

External links

*
Profile at FIGC.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nela, Sebastiano 1961 births People from Rapallo Association football fullbacks Association football central defenders Italian footballers Italy international footballers Living people 1986 FIFA World Cup players A.S. Roma players Genoa C.F.C. players S.S.C. Napoli players Serie A players Serie B players Italy under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Italy Sportspeople from the Province of Genoa Footballers from Liguria