 Rosato in 1969 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1943-08-18)18 August 1943 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Chieri,Kingdom of Italy | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 20 June 2010(2010-06-20) (aged 66) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Chieri, Italy | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1960–1966 | Torino | 131 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 1966–1973 | A.C. Milan | 187 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 1973–1977 | Genoa | 84 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1977–1979 | Aosta | 48 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 450 | (11) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1965–1972 | Italy | 37 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Roberto Rosato (Italian pronunciation:[roˈbɛrtoroˈzaːto]; 18 August 1943 – 20 June 2010) was an Italianfootballer, who played as adefender.
A strong, hard-tackling, and reliablecentre-back, he is regarded as one of Italy's greatest defenders.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Rosato played for four different Italian clubs throughout his career, but is mainly remembered for his successful stint withA.C. Milan, where he won several domestic and international titles. At international level, he representedItaly in twoFIFA World Cups, reaching the final in1970, and wonUEFA Euro 1968.
Rosato played for 15 seasons (351 games, 10 goals) in theSerie A forTorino (1960–66),A.C. Milan (1966–1973) andGenoa (1973–1977), before moving toAosta (1977–79), playing inSerie D for two seasons before officially retiring in 1979. He made his Serie A debut with Torino, in a 1–1 away draw againstFiorentina on 2 April 1961. Rosato is mostly remembered for his highly successful period with Milan, where he won several domestic and international trophies (oneSerie A A title, threeCoppa Italia titles, oneEuropean Cup, twoUEFA Cup Winners' Cups, and oneIntercontinental Cup), forming a formidable back-line alongsideCudicini,Schnellinger,Anquilletti, andTrapattoni. He made his Milan debut on 4 September 1966, in a 3–0 away Serie A win overPisa; in total he made 269 appearances with the club, scoring 8 goals, 5 of which came in Serie A in 187 appearances.[1][2][6][7][8]
Rosato also played 37 matches for theItaly national team from 1965 to 1973.[9] An important member of the Italy national side, he gave one of his best performances during his debut under managerEdmondo Fabbri in 1966, in a 1–1 away draw againstWest Germany; after the match, he was dubbed the “Hammer of Hamburg” (Il Martello d'Amburgo) by the media, due to his tenacity and determination throughout the match. He participated in two World Cups (1966 and1970), where is widely remembered for an important goal-line clearance onGerd Müller in Italy's 4–3 semi-final win over West Germany, which is known as "the Match of the Century".[4][10] Rosato was also a member of the team that lost 4–1 toBrazil in the1970 FIFA World Cup Final; after the tournament he was elected the best central defender of the tournament.[11] At the end of the game he swapped shirts withPelé. He sold the shirt for a record £157,750 at auction in 2002.[12][13] was also part of the Italian team that won the1968 UEFA European Football Championship and the Gold Medal at the1963 Mediterranean Games.[1][7]
A powerful, consistent, hard-tackling, and tenacious man-markingcentre-back, Rosato is regarded as one of the greatest and most complete Italian defenders of all time, due to his strong performances throughout his career. In addition to his tough, determined, physical, and aggressive style of play, he was also extremely composed and elegant on the ball, due to his notable technical ability and balance; he was also known for his commanding influence on the pitch.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Rosato was frequently known by his team-mates and the media as "Angel Face" (Faccia d'Angelo) under managerNereo Rocco, due to his delicate, handsome physical features, which were thought to contrast with his determination and ruggedness on the pitch. Rosato is born on the same day as his Milan team-mate and "twin", as he was known,Gianni Rivera.[1][3][6]
Rosato died on 20 June 2010, at the age of 66, after struggling with a lengthy illness; after news of his death was aired, the Italian team wore black armbands in memory of Rosato in their2010 FIFA World Cup game againstNew Zealand later that day.[4][5][14]
Individual
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