Contest Week #10 - Football Biography Contest

Hello everyone! This is my entry for the Football Biography Contest/Week #10

Well I decided to participate in the contest for two reasons, firstly because I love football and also because I am so tired and bored to hear all the time that someone's favorite player is Messi or Ronald, Ronald or Messi. It's like we started watching football the last 10 or 15 years. In my opinion football in more poor today because the game is all about money and profit and not about the game itself anymore. Ok that's a huge discussion so here is the player I am picking from this contest, may the younger learn and see how great players played. My pick:

Claudio Gentile

Gentile, Nicknamed ‘Qaddafi’, was born in '53 in Tripoli, Libya but moved to Italy when he was a child, he started his football career in Arona and played in big Italian clubs as Juvnetus and Fiorentina, but spend almost all his football career in Juventus, having 283 appearances and 9 goals. Gentile also took part in the Italian National Team between '73-'84 and won the World Cup in 1982. Gentile was a center back, played both as a man-marking defender and a stopper, but could also play as a sweeper.

But why Gentile you will ask. Well, it's all about his style of play, Gentile was a strong, cold-blooded, unbending and firm defender. One of the best defenders of his generation and one of the best defenders Italy ever had, he was included in the "The All-Star Team" of the World Cup 0f 1982 where the best performers at the respective World Cup final were placed.

In one of the greatest World Cup matches in the football history in 1982, Italy played against Brazil. Italy had to win the game to progress to the semi-finals. Gentile played during that World Cup for Italy and in that particular game he was sensational, Italy won that year the World Cup with Gentile contribution to that glory. Below you can see some minutes from the game Brazil -Italy game and Gentile playing versus Zico:

“Football is not for ballerinas” said, the so called hardest man in football with the surname Gentile, when Maradona complained about his tough playing in the pitch. Actually, Gentile was one of the few defenders that could stop Maradona.

Gentile studied Maradona for two days, watching videos of his play and concluded that the Argentine needed to be so well marked that he does not get any time on ball. During the match, Gentile produced a number of violent tackles on Maradona on and off the ball, committing a record 23 fouls on him alone. Maradona was denied the right to play and was visibly frustrated towards the end of the game.

Source here

In fact, Gentile was a Coach’s delight. He always did the job that he was asked of meticulously and very often, his job was to mark an opposition player. He always did the job that he was asked of meticulously and very often, his job was to mark an opposition player. Gentile would then study the player beforehand and come up with a strategy to neutralize him in the game. He was noted for his hard tackles directed at the ball. He is said to pioneer the technique of kicking the ball from between opponent’s legs, leaving them bruised, battered and frustrated. Gentile followed his opponent like a shadow, remaining very close to him throughout the game.

Source here

That was Claudio Gentile, a great defender!

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Gentile
http://www.footballitaliano.co.uk/p6_66_885_lessons-in-calcio-claudio-gentile.html#.VH6UHtab2QZ
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2017/08/11/claudio-gentile-in-defence-of-the-dark-arts-master/