He is still the oldest world champion of all time and a real legend. Dino Zoff’s path to becoming an exceptional goalkeeper was rocky and started with a disaster. 31 years later, however, he crowned his career in 1982 with the world title. Today “Dino Nazionale” celebrates its 80th birthday!
The big Dino Zoff was just too small. He measured only 1.62 meters. Even at just 14, that was far too little for a goalkeeper. And that’s exactly what he wanted to be. The man in the box who fends off balls and thus saves his team from goals. So something had to happen to the boy from the little village of Mariano del Friuli in northern Italy. Good thing Dino’s grandma Adelaide had an idea. The family didn’t have much back then, but eggs, they had enough. And they make you big and strong, said Grandma Zoff, every day anew when she prepared an egg cocktail for her little grandson. Two, three, freshly pitched into a cup – and then down with it. Lo and behold: it helped! Dino grew and grew. And soon he measured a proud 1.82 meters. That still wasn’t much for a goalkeeper – but what he lacked in stature the silent boy made up for in his bounce, composure and agility. And suddenly the formerly small Dino Zoff was huge – and much sought after.
But the start of his professional career went terribly wrong. No, actually it was a real disaster. On September 24, 1961, when he was just 19, Dino Zoff was in goal for his club Udinese – and suffered a devastating defeat. The game in Florence was groundbreaking for staying in the first division. And Fiorentina got serious. The game ended 5:2 and the young up-and-coming keeper Zoff had to go into the second division immediately after his first season. He played over thirty games in total for Udinese before being transferred to AC Mantova. And that’s where Zoff really came to life. Although Mantova went up and down in the leagues, he matured into a class goalkeeper during this time – which aroused the desires of other clubs.
The fight for the goal
Finally, in 1967, Zoff was to go to the hot south of Italy. The SSC Napoli, the club from Vesuvius, lured the calm, rather cold northern Italian – and Zoff should never regret this decision. In his memory, it was a wonderful time in a spirited city that finally catapulted him into the football limelight. It was then that the bitter dispute over a place in the Italian national team began with his new rival Enrico Albertosi of Cagliari Calcio.
The constant change in the Squadra Azzurra box in the years leading up to the 1970 World Cup not only kept the two keepers busy, but also the supporters of the clubs from Cagliari and Naples. For years, the two fan groups were deadly enemies because of the goalkeeper duel and fought violently. But after the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, there was only one regular keeper in goal for the Italian national team: Dino Zoff.
In his five years in Naples, Zoff had set the first record of his career, with many others to follow. The goalkeeper was in the box in 213 championship games for the SSC in a row. Only a fracture of the right arm ended this long period without a break in the goal of Naples. But after moving to Juventus Turin in 1972, Zoff was to set a new record. In 330 matches in a row he was in the “old lady” box. This record still stands today. And in Turin, Zoff also won the championship in his first year with Juventus. He was worth 2.2 million marks to the Italian record champions. A proud sum for the time.
“The Destiny of All Coaches”
But every single lira should pay off for Juventus. Because the hunt for new records continued merrily. In the 1972/73 championship season, opposing players could not overcome him for 903 minutes and in the national team it was even 1133 minutes in which the great Dino Zoff kept his goal clean. Records that show how unique this keeper was at the time. By the way: He lost his record in the Squadra Azzurra at the 1974 World Cup in Germany, when the completely unknown striker Emmanuel Sanon from Haiti was able to defeat him in Munich’s Olympic Stadium.
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary anecdote treasure chest. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his page www.scudetto.de.
But the highlight of his career would not come until a few years later – in the final of the 1982 World Cup in Spain against Germany. At the unbelievable 40 years of age, Dino Zoff brought the World Cup to Italy in an unchallenged 3-1 final victory over the German team. It was the evening when the big silent man from the little village of Mariano del Friuli finally came out of his shell. Later, remembering these unique moments in his career, he would say: “Only the athlete who has really been looking for an audience finds himself.” A clever, almost philosophical sentence.
A year after triumphing with the Italian national team in Spain, Zoff ended his active career at the age of 41. The 1982 World Champion later tried his hand at coaching for a few more years – among other things as national coach he narrowly lost the final against France at the 2000 European Championships – but he was never really happy. In 2005, Fiorentina was his last stop. Zoff just didn’t like how the job always had to end: “It’s the destiny of all coaches to have tomatoes thrown at them sooner or later.”
Today, almost forty years after the greatest success of his career, the oldest soccer world champion of all time is celebrating his 80th birthday. All the best and good luck, dear “Dino Nazionale”!