Ferruccio Valcareggi
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | February 12, 1919 | ||
| Place of birth | Trieste, Italy | ||
| Date of death | November 2, 2005 (aged 86) | ||
| Place of death | Florence, Italy | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1937–1940 | Triestina | ||
| 1940–1943 | Fiorentina | ||
| 1944 | Milan | ||
| 1944–1947 | Bologna | ||
| 1947–1948 | Fiorentina | ||
| 1948–1949 | Vicenza | ||
| 1949–1951 | Lucchese | ||
| 1951–1952 | Brescia | ||
| 1952–1954 | Piombino | ||
| Teams managed | |||
| 1952–1954 | Piombino | ||
| 1954–1959 | Prato | ||
| 1959–1962 | Atalanta | ||
| 1962–1964 | Fiorentina | ||
| 1964–1965 | Atalanta | ||
| 1966–1974 | Italy | ||
| 1975–1978 | Hellas Verona | ||
| 1979–1980 | Roma | ||
| 1979–1984 | Italy B | ||
| 1985 | Fiorentina | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Ferruccio Valcareggi (Italian pronunciation: [ferˈruttʃo valkaˈreddʒi]; 12 February 1919 – 2 November 2005) was an Italian football player and coach, who played as a midfielder.
Valcareggi was born in Trieste. He had a successful playing career, playing for teams such as Fiorentina, Bologna, and his home-town club Triestina, ending his career in 1953. He won the Coppa Alta Italia with Bologna in 1946.
Valcareggi is widely remembered for his success as a coach, in particular with Italy national football team. After managing several Italian club sides (including Prato, helping the club to the 1956–57 Serie C title and Serie B promotion, as well as Atalanta and Fiorentina), he was named the Italian team's coach, replacing manager Edmondo Fabbri, and was in charge of the Italian national side between 1966 and 1974, guiding them to victory in the 1968 European Championship on home soil, and to the final in the 1970 World Cup. Under Valcareggi, Italy lost only six games in eight years.
Valcareggi is also remembered for devising the infamous "staffetta" (relay) match strategy during the 1970 World Cup. Due to his focus on defensive stability, as well as the presence of two pure, prolific goalscoring strikers, Riva and Boninsegna, Valcareggi felt that it would not be possible to field Italy's two most revered advanced playmakers at the time, Gianni Rivera, and Sandro Mazzola, alongside each other. He believed the two creative players to be incompatible with each other, due to the rivalry between their respective clubs, and as he felt that deploying both players alongside the forwards would offset the balance within the starting line-up, in particular as Rivera, unlike Mazzola, was not renowned for his athleticism or defensive work-rate. He therefore conceived the plan, which essentially consisted of Mazzola playing the first half of each match, whilst Rivera would play the second half. Despite Italy's victory at the 1968 European Championship and their second-place finish at the 1970 World Cup, the tactic was widely criticised by the media, in particular due to Italy's negative performance during the group-stage and in the final defeat to Brazil, despite demonstrating their ability to successfully apply a more offensive, exciting style of play with Rivera in the semi-final against West Germany. The two players only played together briefly in the final, when Rivera came on for Boninsegna for the last six minutes of the match.
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