Luciano Castellini (; born 12 December 1945) is an Italian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former football player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Castellini was born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. During his club career he initially played for

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 ...

(1965–70), winning the

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

title, and promotion to

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 ...

during the 1966–67 season. He later made his

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 ...

debut with

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

(1970–78) on 30 August 1970, in a 1–0 away win over

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria and currently compete in the Serie C. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A ...

; during his time with the club, he won the

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 ...

in 1971, and the

during the 1975–76 season, collecting 201 Serie A appearances over eight seasons with the club, and 267 club appearances across all competitions. Luciano Castellini - AC Torino 1974-75

He ended his career with

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

(1978–85), after seven seasons with the club, collecting 203 appearances in Serie A. In total, he made 404 appearances in Serie A, and he is one of the few players to have made over 200 appearances with two different clubs, which he managed both with Torino and Napoli. During his third season with Napoli, Castellini went unbeaten for 531 consecutive minutes, which at the time, was a record bettered only by

Dino Zoff Dino Zoff (; born 28 February 1942) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is the oldest ever ...

, who had gone unbeaten for 590 minutes.

International career

Castellini was included in the Italy national team for the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...

; he was an unused substitute, behind Dino Zoff and

Enrico Albertosi Enrico "Ricky" Albertosi (; born 2 November 1939) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Regarded as one of Italy's greatest ever goalkeepers, he had a successful club career, winning titles with Fiorentina, Cagliari, and Mi ...

, who kept him out of the national side. He earned the only international cap in his career on 26 January 1977, coming on as a substitute in a 2–1 win over

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Managerial career

In 1997, he coached

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * Inter Playa del Carmen, a Mexican club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, ...

for the last two Serie A matches, after the dismissal of

Roy Hodgson Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is an English former football manager and player. He has managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstad in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to t ...

, helping the club to a third-place finish in

. He is currently a member of the Italy U21 staff, and he has also worked with the

youth side as a goalkeeping coach, and as a scout, since 1989.

Style of play

Castellini was an agile, courageous, flexible, and acrobatic goalkeeper, who possessed excellent reflexes, and who excelled in the air due to his athletic ability; he was also known for his speed when rushing off his line, as well as his ability to come out and punch the ball out of the area. During his time at

, he was given the nickname " The Jaguar" by the fans, due to his diving and shot-stopping ability. Considered one of the best Italian goalkeepers of his generation, he is also regarded by many pundits and fans as one of Torino's best goalkeepers, and also as Napoli's greatest goalkeeper of all time, despite being unable to win a trophy with the latter club, and was awarded the league's "Best goalkeeper" award by ''

Guerin Sportivo The ''Guerin Sportivo'' is an Italian sports magazine. It is the oldest sport magazine in the world. Journalists who worked for the magazine include Gianni Brera, Indro Montanelli, Giorgio Tosatti, Darwin Pastorin, Carlo Nesti, Mario Sconc ...

'' on several occasions for his performances.

Honours

Torino *

: 1975–76 *

: 1970–71 Monza *

: 1966–67 Individual *

Guerin d'Oro The Guerin d'Oro ''(Golden Guerin)'' was an annual award which was handed out by the Italian magazine '' Guerin Sportivo'' to the best Serie A football player. The first winner of the award was Claudio Sala, while the last was Carlos Tevez. His ...

: 1980 *

Serie A Team of The Year The AIC Serie A Team of the Year (in Italian: ''Squadra dell’anno AIC'') is an annual award given to a set of eleven footballers in the top tier of Football in Italy, Italian football, the Serie A, who are considered to have performed the best d ...

: 1982 *

Torino FC Hall of Fame This is a list of Torino FC players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame Granata. History The Hall of Fame Granata (''granata'' is the English for "maroon", the club's traditional colour) was created by the Museo del Grande Torino e della ...

: 2016

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellini, Luciano 1945 births Living people Footballers from Milan Italian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers AC Monza players Torino FC players SSC Napoli players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italy men's international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players Italian football managers Inter Milan managers 20th-century Italian sportsmen