Salvatore Bagni

Lore & Background

Bagni is the son of a Romagnol footballer and a Sicilian mother from Gela. He began his career with Serie D club Carpi (1975–77), later playing with Serie A side Perugia (1977–1981) and putting on some encouraging performances, before moving to Inter (1981–84), with whom they won the Coppa Italia in 1982, and was considered a potential heir to Gabriele Oriali in midfield. He is best remembered for his period at Napoli (1984–88), with whom they won a scudetto-Coppa Italia double in 1987, which included the first of two league titles won by Napoli in its history; at Napoli, Bagni often partnered up with Fernando De Napoli in midfield, as a defensive foil to the club's star playmaker Diego Maradona. He later played for Serie B side Avellino for a season (1988–89) before retiring. In total, he scored 52 goals in Serie A.

Reader's Guide

A generous and hard-working team-player, Bagni was a tenacious, hard-tackling player, with good technique and team spirit, who was usually deployed as central, box-to-box or defensive midfielder throughout most of his career, due to his ability to win back possession and subsequently start attacking plays; his tendency to commit aggressive and reckless challenges, despite his friendly character, earned him the nickname 'The Warrior'. In addition to his tenacious playing style, he also attracted controversy for his behaviour during his time at Napoli, when he made an offensive gesture in a match against rival club Roma towards the opposition fans, even though the two sets of fans had formed a friendship at the time, thus ruining the relationship between the two clubs.

Although he was mainly known for his energetic playing style as a ball-winner in midfield, he was also known for his eye for goal throughout his career, and was even capable of playing in more offensive roles, as a winger and as a forward, positions which he often occupied in his early career, when he first made his break-through in Italian football, due to his attacking attributes.