Fulvio Collovati (; born 9 May 1957) is an Italian professional

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 ...

who played as a defender. He was a stopper (a man–marking centre-back in Italian football jargon) and also played for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

at international level, winning the 1982 FIFA World Cup. As a player, he was regarded as one of Italy's best defenders during the 1970s and 1980s. An elegant, physically strong, and dynamic player, he was gifted with good technique and distribution, as well as excellent anticipation, movement, marking ability, heading, and aerial prowess; because of his many defensive attributes, he was considered Roberto Rosato's heir at

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Club career

Collovati was born in Teor, in the province of Udine. Brought up through the

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

youth academy, he debuted in

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 ...

with the ''rossoneri'' in the 1976–77 season, in which he played eleven times and even won the

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 ...

. In the next season he played more regularly (25 appearances, 1 goal) but his definitive moment came during the 1978–79 season in which, thanks to his 27 appearances, he won the '' scudetto''. Following the 1979–80 season, Milan was relegated to the

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

for their involvement in the Totonero football betting scandal. Unlike other players, Collovati stayed on with Milan in

and played 36 games scoring two goals, winning the league title that season, and helping the club to regain promotion to Serie A the following season. Back in

the next season, Milan won the

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

with Collovati serving as the team's captain: however Milan was relegated to Serie B once again, but this time for their on-field exploits. On this occasion, Collovati (who in the meantime was called up to the ''Nazionale'') decided to join local rivals

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

. In his first year with the ''nerazzurri'' ( 1982–83), he played in 28 games. At Inter he was always a mainstay in the defense, but in September 1986 he wanted to be closer to his hometown of Udine and he went to play for

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a foo ...

, where he only stayed for one season (20 games, 2 goals). He ended his career after two years at

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

(1987–88 and 1988–89) and four at Genoa C.F.C. (from 1989–90 to 1992–93), all in

International career

In his international career, Collovati played 50 games and scored 3 goals: he made his senior debut for

on 24 February 1979 against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

(3–0) and he scored his first international goal on 16 February 1980 during Italy–

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

(2–1). Collovati was a member of the Italy squad that finished in fourth place at the 1980 European Championships on home soil, missing the decisive penalty in the shoot-out of the bronze-medal match against

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. Collovati represented his country in 8 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and was a protagonist at the 1982 World Cup in Spain where Italy won the World Cup for a third time, and Collovati was named as a member of the team of the tournament. He also made an appearance for Italy at the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had ...

After retirement

He is now an analyst for the Italian media station

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

Honours

A.C. Milan *

: 1978–79 *

: 1982 *

: 1976–77 *

: 1980–81 Italy *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

: 1982 Individual *

FIFA World Cup All-star Team At the end of each FIFA World Cup final tournament, several awards are presented to the players and teams who have distinguished themselves in various aspects of the game. Awards *There are currently five post-tournament awards from the FIFA ...

: 1982

References

External links

*
Profile at FIGC
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collovati, Fulvio 1957 births Living people People from Teor Footballers from Friuli Venezia Giulia Italian footballers Italy under-21 international footballers Italy international footballers Association football defenders A.C. Milan players A.S. Roma players Udinese Calcio players Inter Milan players Genoa C.F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players FIFA World Cup-winning players UEFA Euro 1980 players 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players