Dino Zoff

Dino Zoff, born 28 February 1942, is an Italian former goalkeeper widely considered among the best ever to play the position. He holds the record as the oldest World Cup winner, captaining Italy to victory in 1982 at 40 years, 4 months, and 13 days old. In that tournament, he was named best goalkeeper and selected for the team of the tournament, keeping two clean sheets. He had earlier earned a spot in the team of the tournament at the 1968 European Championship, which Italy won on home soil. Zoff is the only Italian to have won both the World Cup and the European Championship. At club level, he enjoyed great success with Juventus, winning six Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia titles, and a UEFA Cup, while also reaching two European Champions' Cup finals (1972–73 and 1982–83) and finishing runner-up in the 1973 Intercontinental Cup.

Zoff’s ability as a goalkeeper places him among the sport’s all-time greats. The IFFHS ranked him the third-best goalkeeper of the 20th century, behind Lev Yashin and Gordon Banks. He holds the record for the longest unbeaten run in international tournaments—1,142 minutes without conceding a goal, set between 1972 and 1974. That streak ended at the 1974 World Cup when Haiti’s Emmanuel Sanon scored in a group match. With 112 caps, Zoff is Italy’s eighth most-capped player. In 2004, Pelé named him one of the 100 greatest living footballers. That same year, he placed fifth in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll and was voted Italy’s golden player of the past 50 years. He finished second in the 1973 Ballon d’Or, narrowly missing a treble with Juventus. In 1999, World Soccer magazine ranked him 47th in its list of the 100 Greatest Players of the Twentieth Century.

After retiring as a player, Zoff moved into management. He coached the Italy national team to the Euro 2000 final, where they lost to France, and managed several Italian clubs, including Juventus. With Juventus as manager, he won a UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia double in the 1989–90 season—trophies he had also won as a player. In September 2014, he published his Italian autobiography, Dura solo un attimo, la gloria.

Zoff was born into a farming family in Mariano del Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. On his father’s advice, he studied to become a mechanic as a backup plan. As a young athlete, he admired cyclist Fausto Coppi and race walker Abdon Pamich.

His early career was rocky. At 14, he tried out for Inter Milan and Juventus but was rejected for being too short. Five years later, after growing 33 centimetres—thanks, supposedly, to his grandmother Adelaide’s recommendation of eight eggs daily—he made his Serie A debut for Udinese on 24 September 1961, a 5–2 loss to Fiorentina in which he wasn’t blamed for any goal. He played only four matches in his first season as Udinese were relegated to Serie B. The next season, he became the starting goalkeeper and helped the club win promotion.

In 1963, he moved to Mantova, where he made 131 appearances over four seasons. His performances caught the eye of bigger clubs, and Italy’s national coach Edmondo Fabbri considered him for the 1966 World Cup squad but ultimately chose Enrico Albertosi, Roberto Anzolin, and Pierluigi Pizzaballa instead. In 1967, Zoff transferred to Napoli in exchange for goalkeeper Claudio Bandoni and 130 million lire. Over five seasons in Naples, he made 143 Serie A appearances, earned his first Italy cap in 1968, and was part of the squads for Euro 68 and the 1970 World Cup.

At Euro 68, he played all three matches, saved two penalties in a shootout in the semi-final, and kept a clean sheet in the final replay as Italy won. At the 1970 World Cup, he remained on the bench as Albertosi started the final, which Italy lost 4–1 to Brazil.

In 1972, at age 30, Zoff joined Juventus, where he continued his success. Over 11 years, he won six Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia titles, and a UEFA Cup. He also reached two European Cup finals, another semi-final in 1978 (where he saved two penalties in a quarter-final shootout against Ajax), and the semi-finals of the 1979–80 European Cup Winners’ Cup. In 1973, he finished second in the Ballon d’Or after winning Serie A, but missed out on a treble as Juventus lost both the European Cup and Coppa Italia finals, and also finished runner-up in the Intercontinental Cup. In the 1977 UEFA Cup final against Athletic Bilbao, he faced and beat his Basque counterpart José Ángel Iribar. Overall, Zoff made 479 appearances for Juventus in all competitions.