Riccardo Ferri (; born 20 August 1963) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender, in the role of

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. At international level, he represented

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

, at UEFA Euro 1988, and at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. His older brother, Giacomo was also a footballer and is currently a member of the technical staff at Torino.

Club career

Ferri was born in Crema, in

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, and debuted in

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 ...

with

Inter Milan 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 Association football, football List of football ...

in October 1981. Soon a first-team defender, he became a mainstay of the team's starting eleven, playing for Internazionale for a total of 13 seasons. With Inter, he won the 1981–82 Coppa Italia, followed by Inter's record breaking '' Scudetto'' and 1989 Supercoppa Italiana win during the 1988–89 Serie A season, and two

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

s; the first in 1991, and the second in 1994. In 1994, he went to Sampdoria together with teammate Walter Zenga, in exchange for Gianluca Pagliuca, retiring two seasons later.

International career

After representing his country at under-21 level in the 1984 (third place) and 1986 (second place) under-21 European championships, Ferri went on to receive 45 caps for Italy senior national team, scoring 4 goals. He made his senior international debut on 6 December 1986, in a 2–0 away win against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

, marking his first international appearance by scoring a goal; he made his final Italy appearance in 1992. He played for Italy in Euro 1988, where Italy reached the semi-finals, and in the 1990 World Cup on home soil, where Italy managed a third-place finish after a penalty shoot-out defeat to defending champions

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in the semi-finals. He also competed for Italy at the

, where Italy finished in fourth place after a semi-final defeat.

Style of play

A world-class, tenacious, and combative defender, with excellent man-marking abilities, Ferri usually played in the role of centre-back. Although he possessed good technique, he preferred to mainly focus on the defensive aspect of the game rather than attempting to build plays from the back; however, he occasionally took free-kicks. He also excelled in the air and was known for his ability to anticipate his opponents. The Dutch former AC Milan striker Marco van Basten named Ferri and Pietro Vierchowod as two of the best defenders he ever faced.

Coaching career

Riccardo Ferri was in charge of the Inter Academy Florida based in Broward County,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

(north of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

), before being appointed to the role of Inter Club Manager on 25 July 2022, replacing Lele Oriali.

Honours

Inter Milan *

: 1988–89 * Coppa Italia: 1981–82 * Supercoppa Italiana: 1989 *

: 1990–91, 1993–94 Italy * FIFA World Cup: 1990 (third place) Individual *Pirata d'Oro (Internazionale Player Of The Year): 1988 * World XI: 1990, 1991 Orders :* Cavaliere OMRI BAR

5th Class / Knight: '' Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana'': 1991

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferri, Riccardo 1963 births Living people Footballers from Crema, Lombardy Men's association football defenders Italian men's footballers Serie A players Italy men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Italy Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Inter Milan players UC Sampdoria players Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 1988 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Europa League–winning players Knights of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic 20th-century Italian sportsmen