Gianpiero Marini (; born 25 February 1951) is an Italian former professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

and

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

, who played as a

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 ...

. A strong and hard-working

defensive 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 boundari ...

, Marini played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, in particular

Internazionale 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 t ...

, where he won 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 two

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 during his 11 seasons with the club. At international level, he represented Italy on 20 occasions between 1980 and 1983, and was a member of the team that won the 1982 FIFA World Cup. As a manager, Marini also coached

, where he won the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

in 1994, as well as

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps h ...

, Cremonese, and the Italy B side.

Club career

Marini was born in Lodi. Nicknamed ''Malik'' by fans, he played 256 matches in

, scoring 10 goals. Throughout his career, he played for several teams, including

Fanfulla Luigi Visconti, better known by his stage name Fanfulla, (26 February 1913 – 5 January 1971) was an Italian actor and comedian. Life and career Born in Rome, Visconti debuted at very young age on stage alongside his mother, the actress Merc ...

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

, Reggina, Triestina and most notably Internazionale Milano. With Inter, he won a

title ("Scudetto") during the 1979–80 season, and two

titles in 1978 and 1982.

International career

With

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 ...

, Marini obtained 20 caps between 1980 and 1983, and he represented Italy in their victorious 1982 FIFA World Cup campaign, which enabled him to become a World Champion.

Style of play

Marini was known in particular for his strength, work-rate, and ability to break down plays as a

, as well as his powerful and accurate striking ability from distance.

Managerial career

As coach, Marini also managed

during the 1993–94, where he won the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, despite narrowly avoiding relegation in the league; he later also coached

on two occasions (1997; 1999–2000), as well as Cremonese (1997–99), and the Italy B side in 2001.

Honours

Player

Club

Inter *

: 1979–80 *

: 1977–78, 1981–82

International

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

Coach