PISA – In the history of football there have been many teams that have distinguished themselves from time to time. There are those who have managed to win some trophies and those who, despite not having the same goals of victory, still manage to obtain important results.
This year we are seeing it, on the one hand, with Inter, who have just won their twentieth scudetto, and on the other with Bologna who, with Thiago Motta on the bench, are trying to carve out a place in the next Champions League. The rossoblù are playing great and, dragged by the various Zirkzee, Calafiori and Ferguson, if they qualify, they would return to play in a European competition 21 years later. While to find the club in the Champions League again you have to go back to the 1964/1965 season, when they were eliminated in the play-offs – which were also decided by a coin – by Anderlecht.
However, Bologna is not the only team to amaze the experts. In the lower division, in fact, there is Mr. Vivarini’s Catanzaro who, as newly promoted players, are carving out a space for themselves in the playoff zone. This was a result that was difficult to predict on the eve of the season as confirmed by the early season odds reported on the portals that update statistics and predictions related to betting for Serie B in real time. This is certainly not a new situation since over the years several clubs have managed to accomplish real feats despite not being the favorites and among these there is also Pisa, who especially in the past have achieved historic goals. Two examples are the two Mitropa Cups won in 1986 and 1988.
In that period, the Tuscan team was experiencing several ups and downs, oscillating between Serie B and Serie A. This, however, did not prevent them from winning the two trophies and obtaining various satisfactions. Thus, especially in those years, several important players arrived in the shadow of the Tower of Pisa, but they were not the only ones in the club’s history. Let’s see who the most famous are.
Pisa, how many top players: the best players
One of the most high-sounding names to have played for Pisa is certainly that of Diego Pablo Simeone. Cholo, now coach of Atletico Madrid, arrived in Europe from Velez Sarsfield thanks to the Tuscan team, discovered by the then club president Romeo Anconetani. After two years with the Nerazzurri, the Argentine moved to Spain to play first for Sevilla and then for Atletico Madrid. Then, he returned to Italy, moving to Inter, with whom he won the 1997/1998 UEFA Cup, and later to Lazio, with whom he won a Scudetto, an Italian Cup, an Italian Super Cup and a European Super Cup. For him, also a Spanish championship and a Spanish Cup with Atletico and a historic silver medal with the national team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Another great player who played for Pisa was Carlos Dunga, another great midfielder of his generation who also landed in Europe thanks to Anconetani who took him from Vasco da Gama. Here he remained for only one season (1987/1988), but that was enough to focus the attention of the other teams on him. Eventually he moved to Fiorentina where he played for four seasons. Then Pescara, Jubilo Iwata and the return to Porto Alegre Internacional where he ended his playing career.
Also in Anconetani was the arrival in Pisa of Klaus Berggreen, a Danish midfielder born in 1958 who played in Tuscany from 1982 to 1986. He was one of the protagonists of the first Mitropa Cup won by the Nerazzurri club and then moved to Roma first and at Turin afterwards.
After that, let’s move on to a real goalscorer, the Golden Boot of the 1981/1982 season Wim Kieft. Arriving in Pisa in 1983 after establishing himself as one of the best strikers of the time with the Ajax shirt, the Dutchman did not have a great experience in Tuscany, thanks to the relegation in his first year and the injury that compromised his last season with the Nerazzurri. However, this does not take away his value and in 1988 he contributed to the Orange national team’s victory at the European Championships.
Among the other players with a past in the ranks of Pisa we find another Dane, Henrik Larsen, who however did not meet the high expectations that were placed on him at the time. Recently, the Municipality awarded him honorary citizenship together with Beergreen. And again José Chamot, who later became a Milan player after periods at Foggia, Lazio and Atletico Madrid. While more recently we remember Alessio Cerci, at Pisa in the 2007/2008 season, José Ignacio Castillo in the following season, Davide Moscardelli, with the Nerazzurri from 2018 to 2020, and, above all, Leonardo Bonucci, today at Fenerbahce and until last year a protagonist with Juventus whose recent history he wrote together with the various Chiellinis, Barzagli, Buffon and the others. The national team defender arrived at Pisa on loan from Inter in 2009, and then definitively established himself with the Bari shirt which opened the doors of the Juventus club to him.
Last modified: April 25, 2024
