Luigi Riva
Riva with Italy in 1968
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Luigi Riva | ||
| Date of birth | 7 November 1944 | ||
| Place of birth | Leggiuno, Italy | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1961–1962 | Laveno Mombello | ||
| 1962 | Legnano | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1962–1963 | Legnano | 23 | (6) |
| 1963–1976 | Cagliari | 315 | (164) |
| Total | 338 | (170) | |
| National team | |||
| 1965–1974 | Italy | 42 | (35) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Luigi "Gigi" Riva (born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoyed a remarkable scoring record for Cagliari, thanks to his composure in front of goal, powerful left foot and aerial ability; his speed, strength and eye for goal led the Italian journalist Gianni Brera to nickname him "Rombo di Tuono" (Roar of Thunder). Aside from his debut season with Legnano, Riva remained with the Sardinian club for his entire career: he helped Cagliari achieve promotion to the Italian top-flight for the first time in 1964, and later led the club to their only Serie A title in 1969–70.
At international level, Riva won the 1968 UEFA European Championship and was runner-up at the 1970 FIFA World Cup with the Italian national team; he also took part at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. With 35 goals (in all official competitions) between 1965 and 1974, he is Italy's all-time leading goalscorer.
After retiring in 1976, Riva briefly served as the president of Cagliari during the 1986–87 season, and was later the team manager and director of the Italian national team from 1988 until 2013.
Riva was born into a poor family in Leggiuno, a small town in the northern Italian province of Varese, Lombardy, near the Swiss border, on 7 November 1944. His mother, Edis, was a housewife, while his father, Ugo, worked several jobs, firstly as a hairdresser, then as a tailor, and subsequently in a factory, where he died in a work-related accident on 10 February 1953, when Luigi was nine. Edis began working as a maid, while Luigi was sent to a strict religious boarding school, where he remained for three years, before finding a job in a lift-factory and beginning to play football; his mother died soon afterwards.
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