Comunardo Niccolai, one in all Cagliari’s scudetto heroes dies – Soccer

With Comunardo Niccolai, who handed away at 77, one other protagonist of black and white soccer has handed away. And some months after Gigi Riva, Cagliari, the crew that received the 1970 championship, has misplaced one other hero. “He leaves behind the reminiscence of an awesome sportsman, a well mannered, sort, respectful, cordial man who knew how you can make himself liked – reads a observe from the Sardinian membership – Goodbye Comunardo”.

The Man of Inconceivable Personal Targets

Born in Uzzano, within the province of Pistoia, he arrived in Cagliari at a really younger age after a yr at Torres: he remained there from 1964 to 1976 earlier than shifting to Perugia. He went down in historical past because the “king of personal targets”, a few of them not possible (however Riccardo Ferri and Franco Baresi, with 8, would later rating greater than him). Probably the most well-known one was scored by Niccolai in Turin: an early header to the close to submit that stunned Albertosi within the match between Juventus and Cagliari in 1970, decisive for the championship and which ended 2-2.

He struggled to get used to the label of own-goal scorer, however then he ended up joking about it: “At first it bothered me however then I obtained used to it,” he stated. “There are gamers who’ve had a wonderful profession however nobody remembers them; at the very least I left a mark on the historical past of Italian soccer.”

Scopigno’s well-known joke

After his extraordinary run in Cagliari, which received the Scudetto, the nationwide crew additionally took discover of him and coach Ferruccio Valcareggi, after having made him debut in a pleasant in Portugal in Could, instantly launched him among the many starters in Mexico. Legend has it that seeing him on the pitch, the histrionic coach of the Sardinians, Manlio Scopigno, uttered the very well-known phrase: “I might have anticipated something from life, however to not see Niccolai on world tv…”. Nonetheless, his profession within the nationwide crew ended early. His World Cup lasted the primary 37 minutes of the match towards Sweden: then an damage excluded him from the video games. He returned to the nationwide crew solely as soon as, in October 1970 in Bern, in a pleasant match that drew 1-1 towards Switzerland and went down in historical past for a rare objective by Sandro Mazzola.

A profession as a federal technician

After his profession as a footballer, he was additionally a federal coach, launching skills corresponding to Gianluigi Buffon and Francesco Totti into the youth groups of the Azzurri and later additionally teaching the ladies’s nationwide crew.