Francesco Zagatti (18 April 1932 – 7 March 2009) was an Italian professional

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 lea ...

who played as a defender. He usually played as an attacking full-back on either flank, and was known to be a generous, tenacious, and hard-working player, with an ability to make runs down the flank and get on the end of his teammates' passes.

Playing career

Zagatti started his career at

A.C. 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 ...

. He played in their

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or Sports league, league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team (a ...

, before making his senior debut in a

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 ...

game against

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, on 1 June 1952. He went on to spend his whole career with the ''Rossoneri'', later captaining the squad, and winning four '' Scudetti'', one

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 ...

and one

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international official football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949, the football federations came together and requested FIFA launch the competition ...

After retirement

After his retirement, Zagatti stayed at Milan as the coach of the youth team and later as a scout. During the 1981–82 season, he also served as head coach for a couple of games.

Death

Zagatti died on 7 March 2009, aged 76, due to a serious form of

Hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver parenchyma, liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), Anorexia (symptom), poor appetite ...

Honours

A.C. Milan *

: 1954–55, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1961–62 *

: 1962–63 *

: 1956 Individual * A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

References

External links

Profile
at MagliaRossonera.it 1932 births 2009 deaths Italian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Serie A players AC Milan players AC Milan non-playing staff People from Venaria Reale Footballers from Piedmont 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-defender-1930s-stub