Anselmo Robbiati (born 1 January 1970) is an Italian former

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 ...

, currently assistant manager of

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of ...

team Figline. A former forward or

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 ...

, he is best remembered for his time with Fiorentina during the 1990s.

Career

Robbiati started his professional career in 1987 with

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1. Before the 1978 ...

club

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 ...

. In 1993, he signed for Fiorentina, then in

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 ...

, being instrumental in the ''violas successful 1993–94 campaign, which saw them win the Serie B title and obtain promotion to

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 ...

. He stayed at Fiorentina until 1999; despite often not being featured in the starting lineup, in 1996 he 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 ...

and the

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seas ...

, and he also achieved some success even at the continental level, scoring the decisive goal in the return leg of the

UEFA 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 tourn ...

Round of 16 fixture against

Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

. Fiorentina were ultimately defeated by the eventual champions

Barcelona FC Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

in the semi-finals of the tournament. After a season with

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 ...

, in 2001 Robbiati signed for Inter, but never managed to play a single match with the ''nerazzurri'', being loaned first to

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and par ...

and then to Fiorentina. In 2002 Robbiati left the top-flight to join

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...

, and then

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of ...

teams

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is ...

and

. After a season-long stay at

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

team

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 has m ...

, in October 2006 he signed for Figline, a minor Tuscan team. In his first two seasons with Figline, Robbiati captained the Tuscan club to two consecutive promotions from

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and ...

. He started the 2008–09 with Figline, being joined by former fellow ''viola''

Enrico Chiesa Enrico Chiesa (; born 29 December 1970) is an Italian football coach and former striker. A prolific goalscorer, Chiesa played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, and performed regularly in Serie A for over a decade, winning titles ...

. On January 2009 he announced his retirement from active football, accepting to stay at the club in an assistant manager role.

Style of play

A quick, diminutive, and dynamic left-footed forward or attacking midfielder, who could also play as a

second 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 ...

, Robbiati was known in particular for his creativity, technical ability, and eye for goal, as well as his ability to provide assists for teammates and his attacking movement, which allowed him find gaps in the opposing defence with his runs off the ball. He was also an accurate free kick taker.

Personal life

Robbiati is popularly known as ''Spadino''; the nickname was first used by Giovanni Stroppa during their time together at Monza, and is a reference to

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most su ...

minor character Raymond "Spike" Fonzarelli ("Spadino" in the Italian version of the sitcom). His father

Luigi Robbiati Luigi Robbiati (born 18 June 1935 in Robbiate) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender in Serie A for Internazionale in the 1950s. His son Anselmo Robbiati played in Serie A for ACF Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly re ...

played in

for

F.C. Internazionale Milano 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 ...

in the 1950s.

Honours

;Fiorentina *

: 1995–96 *

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

References

External links

Robbiati's career profile (from FootballPlus.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbiati, Anselmo 1970 births Living people Italian footballers A.C. Monza players ACF Fiorentina players S.S.C. Napoli players Inter Milan players A.C. Perugia Calcio players A.C. Ancona players Association football midfielders Association football forwards Sportspeople from Lecco F.C. Grosseto S.S.D. players Como 1907 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Footballers from Lombardy