Claudio Sala (; born 8 September 1947) is a former 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 ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and current commentator, who played as a winger.

Club career

He made his debut for

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of M ...

, later moving to

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 ...

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

. In total he played 323 matches and scored 27 goals in the

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 Copp ...

. With Torino, he won the

1975–76 Serie A The 1975–76 Serie A season was won by Torino. Teams Perugia, Como and Hellas Verona had been promoted from Serie B while Vicenza , Ternana and Varese was relegated to Serie B. Classification Results Top goalscorers References and sourc ...

, and the 1970–71

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 ...

International career

He also earned 18 caps for 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 ...

, including playing in the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by ...

, where Italy finished in fourth place after reaching the semi-final.

Style of play

Nicknamed "il poeta del gol" ("the goal poet," in Italian), Sala was usually deployed as a winger, but could also play as an

attacking 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 ...

, or even as a

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supporting striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

on occasion. Regarded as one of Italy's greatest wingers, he was a quick, powerful, and highly creative player, and an excellent

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: * Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a b ...

provider. He had good technical ability, as well as accurate passing and

crossing Crossing may refer to: * ''Crossing'' (2008 film), a South Korean film * ''Crossing'' (album), a 1985 album by world music/jazz group Oregon * Crossing (architecture), the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church * Crossing (knot theory) ...

ability, which allowed him to be an effective

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativity ...

. As a two-footed player, he was capable of attacking on either wing, and was known for his ability to get past his opponents and deliver balls into the penalty area from the touchline.

Honours

Club

;

: 1975–76 *

: 1970–71 ;

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega ...

: 1966–67

Individual

Guerin d'Oro The Guerin d'Oro ''(Golden Guerin)'' was an annual award which was handed out by the Italian magazine ''Guerin Sportivo'' to the best Serie A football player. The first winner of the award was Claudio Sala, while the last was Carlos Tevez. Hist ...

: 1976, 1977 *

Torino F.C. Hall of Fame This is a list of Torino FC Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and w ...

: 2016

References

1947 births Living people Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Milan Italian footballers Italy international footballers Association football midfielders Association football forwards 1978 FIFA World Cup players Serie A players Serie B players A.C. Monza players S.S.C. Napoli players Torino F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players People from Brianza U.S. Catanzaro 1929 managers Footballers from Lombardy {{italy-footy-bio-stub