Angelo Anquilletti (; 25 April 1943 – 9 January 2015) was an

Italian football Football ( ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Brazil (with five), runners-up in two finals both against Brazil, (1970, 1994) and ...

defender. A tough yet fair player, Anquiletti was a successful right-sided full-back, who was known for his strength, energy, work-rate, positioning, marking ability, anticipation, and his ability to read the game; he also excelled in the air and was confident on the ball and at distributing it to teammates, which also enabled him to be deployed as a

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) ray-finned fish of the family (biology), family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 80 species in two genus, genera. One ...

towards the end of his career. He is mostly remembered for his lengthy spell with

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

and for being a member of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

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 ...

winning squad. Anquiletti was known by the fans as "Angelo Anguilla" (Angelo the Eel), due to his man-marking ability, and wore the number 2 shirt throughout his successful Milan career.

Club career

Anquiletti Started his career in

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

with Solbiatese during the 1964–65 season. In 1964 he played with

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, making his debut on 16 November 1964, at the age of 21, in a 1–0 away win over

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

; he remained at the club for two seasons. From 1966 to 1977 played for

, where he achieved notable success, forming an impressive defensive line-up during his 11 seasons with the club alongside Cudicini, Trapattoni, Rosato, and Schnellinger, which was nicknamed the ''

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (; ), named after the Minister of War (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, France in the 1930s to deter invas ...

''. He was notably part of their

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

victory in

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

, also winning 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, two

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

s ( 1967–68 and 1972–73), the

1969 Intercontinental Cup The 1969 Intercontinental Cup was a two-legged association football match contested between 1968–69 European Cup champions Milan and 1969 Copa Libertadores winners Estudiantes de La Plata. It was the 10th edition of the competition. The firs ...

, and four

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

titles (1966–67, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1976–77). He notably scored two goals against

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

in the first leg of the first round of the victorious 1967–68 edition of the European Cup Winners' Cup. Overall, he made 418 appearances for Milan, and is the club's ninth all-time appearance holder; 278 of his appearances came in Serie A, 71 in the Coppa Italia, 63 in European Competitions, and 6 in other competitions. He ended his career with

Monza Monza (, ; ; , locally ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the Lambro, River Lambro, a tributary of the Po (river), River Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the province of Mo ...

, spending 2 more seasons in

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as 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 b ...

before retiring in 1979, at the age of 36. Overall, he played 326 games in the

for Atalanta and Milan, and 41 games in Serie B, although he was unable to score a goal in the Italian leagues throughout his career.

International career

Anquiletti earned 2 caps for the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

, and was part of Italy's

squad that won the tournament on home soil under Valcareggi, despite not making an appearance throughout the cup. He made his international debut in January 1969, in a friendly tournament in Mexico which preceded the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

, making his only two appearances for Italy against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

that year. He struggled to find space in the national side due to the presence of

Tarcisio Burgnich Tarcisio Burgnich (; 25 April 1939 – 26 May 2021) was an Italian football manager and player, who played as a defender. Throughout his career, Burgnich played for Udinese, Juventus, Palermo, Inter Milan, and Napoli; although he won titles ...

and

Fabrizio Poletti Fabrizio Poletti (; born 13 July 1943) is an Italian former football manager and player who played as a full-back. He is remembered for his career with Torino, where he played for nine seasons, and won the Coppa Italia twice. He also represent ...

in his role.

Death

Anquiletti died on 9 January 2015, at the age of 71, after struggling with a long illness.

Career statistics

Club

''*European competitions include the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup, and UEFA Super Cup''

Honours

AC Milan *

: 1967–68 *

: 1966–67, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1976–77 *

: 1968–69 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

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

Italy *

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

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

(on the roster, did not play any games). Individual * AC Milan Hall of Fame

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Anquilletti, Angelo 1943 births 2015 deaths Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Atalanta BC players AC Milan players AC Monza players UEFA Euro 1968 players European champions for Italy UEFA European Championship–winning players ASD Solbiatese Calcio 1911 players Men's association football defenders UEFA Champions League–winning players Footballers from Lombardy 20th-century Italian sportsmen People from San Donato Milanese