Dino Zoff

Lore & Background

Zoff was a goalkeeper of outstanding ability, and he has a place in the history of the sport among the very best in this role, named the third greatest goalkeeper of the 20th century by the IFFHS behind Lev Yashin and Gordon Banks. He holds the record for the longest playing time without allowing goals in international tournaments (1,142 minutes) set between 1972 and 1974. Haiti's Emmanuel Sanon ended the streak at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, in the Haiti–Italy group match. With 112 caps, he is the eighth most capped player for the Italy national team. In 2004, Pelé named Zoff as one of the 100 greatest living footballers. In the same year, Zoff placed fifth in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll, and was elected as Italy's golden player of the past 50 years. He also placed second in the 1973 Ballon d'Or, as he narrowly missed out on a treble with Juventus. In 1999, Zoff placed 47th in World Soccer magazine's 100 Greatest Players of the Twentieth Century.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Bernabéu hummed like a low current. It was the 1982 final, the eighty-third minute, and the score hung at 2-1 in Italy's favour. A West German winger cut inside the box, the crowd a wall of noise. Zoff, forty years old, felt the grass shift under his boots as he set his feet wide. The shot came low, fierce, aimed at the near post. He did not dive. He simply leaned, let his body describe an arc, and the ball kissed the pad of his right glove and died there. Silence. Then, a roar that seemed to lift the roof off the stadium. He stood, brushed the grass from his thigh, and looked back down the pitch as if to say: *that was the easy one.*

Reader's Guide

After retiring as a footballer, Zoff went on to pursue a managerial career, coaching the Italy national team, with which he reached the Euro 2000 final, losing to France, and several Italian club teams, including his former club Juventus, with which he won an UEFA Cup and a Coppa Italia double during the 1989–90 season, trophies he had also won as a player. In September 2014, Zoff published his Italian autobiography Dura solo un attimo, la gloria.

Did You Know?

• Zoff made his senior debut for Italy on 20 April 1968 in a 2–0 win against Bulgaria.
• He played in all three of Italy's matches in Euro 1968, saving two penalties in the penalty shoot-out in the semi-final, and keeping a clean sheet in the replay of the final as Italy won the championship.
• Zoff did not play in the 1970 World Cup final when Italy lost 4-1 to Brazil, as Albertosi was preferred, keeping Zoff on the substitutes' bench.
• He holds the record for most consecutive matches played in Serie A (332), a streak which went unbroken from 21 May 1972 until his final league appearance with Juventus in 1983.
• At 41 years and 86 days, Zoff is the oldest player to have appeared in a European Cup or UEFA Champions League final.