Bruno Pizzul (; born 8 March 1938) is an Italian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and a former professional

football player 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 ...

. He is best known for being the TV commentator of matches involving 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 ...

from 1986 to 2002.

Biography and career

Born in

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with ...

, he started his football career in an amateur club of Cormonese

Cormons Cormons or Cormòns ( sl, Krmin, german: Kremaun) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about west of Gorizia, on the border with Slovenia. Cormons borders the f ...

, a town in the

Province of Gorizia The Province of Gorizia ( it, Provincia di Gorizia, fur, Provincie di Gurize; sl, Goriška pokrajina) was a province in the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of Italy, which was disbanded on 30 September 2017. Overview Its capital was t ...

. From the end of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1960s he played as a professional

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 ...

for

Pro Gorizia Associazione Sportiva Pro Gorizia is an Italian association football club located in Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It plays in Eccellenza. Its colors are blue and white. The club was founded in 1923 and spent two seasons in Serie B T ...

, Catania,

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to wes ...

and

Cremonese Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

. Graduated in

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...

, in 1969 he was hired by RAI, the Italian public service broadcaster, as a sports commentator. The first match commented was

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

–

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

of 1969–70

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 first international match was the UEFA Euro 1972 Final (

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

–

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

). In 1986, starting with the Mexican FIFA World Cup, he became the official commentator of

, succeeding to . He kept this role until 21 August 2002, when he commented his last match of Italy, in a friendly against

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

, played in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

and lost by the ''Azzurri'' 0–1. After his official leave-taking from RAI, in 2007 Pizzul commented for

La 7 La7 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned by Cairo Communication. Until 2013 it was a pay-per-view channel owned by Telecom Italia Media and operated by Telecom Italia. Signal overspill means that parts of Albania, Croatia ...

the replicas of Italian matches at

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

and several matches of

2007–08 Coppa Italia The 2007–08 Coppa Italia was the 61st edition of the tournament. Fixtures were announced at 16:00 CET, July 25, 2007. The tournament began on August 14, 2007, and ended on May 24, 2008 with a single-match final to be played at the Stadio Olimp ...

. He considers himself Roman Catholic. On 2 June 2022 he was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Cinema

Bruno Pizzul played the role of himself in the Italian 1974 film '' L'arbitro'' (), directed by Luigi Filippo D'Amico, with

Lando Buzzanca Gerlando "Lando" Buzzanca (24 August 1935 – 18 December 2022) was an Italian stage, film, and television actor whose career spanned 65 years. Life and career Early years Born in Palermo the son of a cinema projectionist, at 16 years old Buz ...

and

Joan Collins Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime ...

.. In 1996, he lent his voice in the final scenes of the film '' Fantozzi - Il ritorno'', directed by Neri Parenti, with

Paolo Villaggio Paolo Villaggio (; 30 December 1932 – 3 July 2017) was an Italian actor, voice actor, writer, director and comedian. He is noted for the characters he created with paradoxical and grotesque characteristics: Professor Kranz, the ultra-timid G ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pizzul, Bruno 1938 births Italian sports journalists Italian sports commentators Footballers from Udine Catania S.S.D. players U.S. Cremonese players Living people Italian footballers S.S.D. Ischia Calcio players Men's association football midfielders A.S. Pro Gorizia players Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Italian Roman Catholics