Pierino Prati (; 13 December 1946 – 22 June 2020) was an 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 ...

who played mainly as a forward. He began his career with

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

, and later played for several other Italian clubs, including a successful spell with

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

, with whom he won several titles. As of 2022, he is the last person to score a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in the European cup's final, having done so in 1969, against Ajax Amsterdam. At international level, Prati represented

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 ...

on 14 occasions between 1968 and 1974, scoring seven goals; he was a member of the teams that won

UEFA Euro 1968 The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968. It ...

on home soil, and which reached the 1970 FIFA World Cup Final. He also had a brief spell with Rochester Lancers in the NASL in 1979.

Club career

Also known as "Pierino the pest", Prati began his career playing in Serie C1 with

, winning the title and promotion to

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 ...

during the 1965–66 season. He is mostly remembered for his highly successful and prolific stint with Italian club

under manager Nereo Rocco in the 60s and 70s, during which he achieved great international and domestic success, winning 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, a European Cup, two

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

s, an Intercontinental Cup, 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, forming an excellent partnership with

Gianni Rivera Giovanni "Gianni" Rivera (; born 18 August 1943) is an Italian politician and former footballer who played as a midfielder. During his career as a footballer he was mostly utilised as an attacking midfielder. Dubbed Italy's "Golden Boy" by the ...

1968–69 Milan AC - Gianni Rivera and Pierino Prati

He made his Serie A debut with the club during the end of the 1965–66 season, on 18 September 1966, in a 2–1 win over

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, but was briefly loaned to Serie B club Savona during the 1966–67 season. He later helped Milan to win the

1967–68 Serie A The 1967–68 Serie A season was won by Milan. Teams Sampdoria and Varese had been promoted from Serie B. Six out of the sixteen clubs came from Lombardy, a record for a single region of Italy. Final classification Results Top goalscorer ...

title, finishing the season as the top goalscorer in the Italian league, with 15 goals. He was also notably part of their European Cup victory in 1969, scoring a hat-trick in the 4–1 defeat of

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

in the final, and six goals in total throughout the competition. He is the last man to have scored a hat-trick in the Champions League/European Cup Final. Ferenc Puskás (twice) and Alfredo Di Stefano (both of Real Madrid) are the only other players to have achieved this. Overall, he played for 12 seasons (233 games, 100 goals) in the Italian

with Milan, Roma and Fiorentina. He also played for Savona once again in Serie C2 in his later career, as well as the Rochester Lancers in the NASL.

International career

Prati also played 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 ...

. He was most notably a member of the Italian side that won the 1968 UEFA European Football Championship on home soil, during which he made his debut on 6 April, scoring a goal in a 3–2 loss against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

in the first leg of the quarter-finals, and another in the 2–0 victory in the return leg. He played the first

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

match alongside Pietro Anastasi, but was replaced by

Luigi Riva Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward. Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...

in the re-match, the striker who would often keep him on the bench for Italy. With his national team, Prati also reached the final of the 1970 FIFA World Cup, losing out to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In total, he was capped 14 times for the national side between 1968 and 1974, scoring 7 times.

Style of play

A talented and opportunistic player, with an eye for goal, Prati was capable of playing anywhere along the front-line, as a striker, supporting forward, and as a winger. At Milan, he was often deployed on the left wing due to his pace, technique, distribution, and was also known for his powerful and accurate shot from both inside and outside the penalty area, as well as his ability in the air.

Personal life

Prati's son, Cristiano, is also a footballer, who plays in the lower Italian divisions.

Death

Prati died on 22 June 2020, after being ill for some time.

Career statistics

Club

Source

International

Source

Honours

Club

Salernitana * Serie C1: 1965–66 AC Milan *

: 1967–68 *

: 1971–72, 1972–73 * European Cup: 1968–69 *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

: 1967–68, 1972–73 * Intercontinental Cup: 1969

International

Italy *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

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 ...

: runner-up

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

Individual

* Serie A Top Goalscorer: 1967–68 (15 goals) *AC Milan Hall of Fame

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prati, Pierino 1946 births 2020 deaths People from Cinisello Balsamo Italian footballers Italy international footballers UEFA Euro 1968 players 1970 FIFA World Cup players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players U.S. Salernitana 1919 players A.C. Milan players Savona F.B.C. players A.S. Roma players ACF Fiorentina players Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Italian expatriate sportspeople in the United States North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Rochester Lancers (1967–1980) players UEFA European Championship-winning players Association football forwards UEFA Champions League winning players Footballers from Lombardy Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Milan