Romeo Benetti (; born 20 October 1945) is 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

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. A tenacious and intimidating player, Benetti played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, winning titles with

AC 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 ...

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

and

AS Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: Help:IPA/Italian, ) is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier ...

. At international level, he represented the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

on 55 occasions between 1971 and 1980, and took part at the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

and

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

s, as well as

UEFA Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams ...

, achieving fourth-place finishes in the latter two tournaments.

Club career

After winning the 1967–68 Serie B title with

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, Benetti started 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 ...

career in 1968 with

, making 24 appearances and scoring a goal during his first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

with the club. However, he did not remain at the club for long, and he joined Sampdoria on loan during the next season. His breakthrough came in the 1970–71

season, after joining

in 1970, helping the club to three consecutive second-place finishes in the league between 1970 and 1973. During his time at the club, he won the 1972–73 European Cup Winners' Cup, as well as two

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 ...

trophies during the 1971–72 and 1972–73 seasons, later being named the club's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, inheriting the armband from teammate

Gianni Rivera Giovanni "Gianni" Rivera (; born 18 August 1943) is an Italian politician and former association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Dubbed Italy's "Golden Boy" by the media, he played the majority of his club career wi ...

. He also scored a memorable long-range goal in the Milan Derby against rivals Inter in March 1973. In 1976, he returned to Juventus and won the 1976–77 and 1977–78 Serie A titles, as well as the

1976–77 UEFA Cup The 1976–77 UEFA Cup was the sixth season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at Stadio Comunale, Turin, Italy, and at San Mamés, Bilbao, Spain. It was won by Juvent ...

, and the

during the 1978–79 season. As his career came to an end he transferred to Roma in 1979, where he remained until 1981, winning two more consecutive

titles before retiring.

International career

Benetti won 55 caps for

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 ...

between 1971 and 1980, scoring 2 goals throughout his international career. He made his debut on 25 September 1971 against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. He was member of the Italian squads that took part in 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 ...

, and also in the

, where he wore the number 10 shirt as Italy finished in fourth place; Benetti scored a goal from outside the area in the first round of the tournament, in a 3–1 victory over

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He also took part at the

1980 UEFA European Championship The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams ...

with his country, on home soil, where he helped his team to the semi-finals, eventually finishing the tournament in fourth place once again; he made his final international appearance in the third-place match, which ended in a penalty shoot-out defeat to

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

following a 1–1 draw after extra-time, although Benetti was able to net his penalty in the shoot-out. He was voted into Italy's all-time world cup team by website PlanetWorldCup.com and its members.

Style of play

Nicknamed ''Panzer'' (tank), ''El Tigre'' (the tiger), and ''Roccia'' (rock), Benetti was a tenacious, mobile, athletic, and complete

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, who was known in particular for his physical strength, stamina, charisma, determination, consistency, and leadership as footballer, as well as the trademark moustache that he bore for most of his career. Although he was initially deployed as a winger, he usually played as a central or

, and his hard-tackling style of play in this role epitomised the '' catenaccio'' tactics made famous by

during the 1970s. Despite being a predominantly defensive-minded player, he was also known for his goal-scoring ability from midfield, due to his powerful and accurate striking ability from distance. Furthermore, Benetti also possessed good technique and distribution, which enabled him to function as a deep-lying playmaker at times, and start attacking plays and create goalscoring opportunities after winning back the ball, in particular when playing in teams that lacked a true midfield playmaker. In 2007, he was voted in at number 30 in a list of ''Football's 50 Greatest Hardmen'' by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' online.

Honours

Juventus *

: 1976–77, 1977–78 *

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 ...

: 1976–77 *

: 1978–79 AC Milan *

: 1971–72, 1972–73 * UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1972–73 AS Roma *

: 1979–80, 1980–81 Palermo *

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 ...

: 1967–68 Italy *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

(fourth place) *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

(fourth place)

References

External links

*
Profile and Statistics
at the

FIGC The Italian Football Federation (, ; FIGC ), known colloquially as (), is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It manages and coordinates the Italian football l ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Benetti, Romeo 1945 births Living people Footballers from Verona Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Italy men's international footballers Taranto FC 1927 players Siena FC SSD players Palermo FC players Juventus FC players UC Sampdoria players AC Milan players AS Roma players Serie A players Serie C players Serie D players 1974 FIFA World Cup players 1978 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1980 players UEFA Europa League–winning players 20th-century Italian sportsmen