Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Walter Zenga | ||
Date of birth | 28 April 1960 | ||
Place of birth | Milan, Italy | ||
Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
Youth career | |||
1969–1971 | Macallesi 1927 | ||
1971–1978 | Internazionale | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1978–1994 | Internazionale | 328 | (0) |
1978–1979 | → Salernitana (loan) | 3 | (0) |
1979–1980 | → Savona (loan) | 23 | (0) |
1980–1982 | → Sambenedettese (loan) | 67 | (0) |
1994–1996 | Sampdoria | 41 | (0) |
1996–1997 | Padova | 21 | (0) |
1997–1999 | New England Revolution | 47 | (0) |
Total | 530 | (0) | |
National team | |||
1984–1986 | Italy U21 | 15 | (0) |
1987–1992 | Italy | 58 | (0) |
Teams managed | |||
1998–1999 | New England Revolution | ||
2000–2001 | Brera | ||
2002–2003 | Naţional Bucureşti | ||
2004–2005 | Steaua Bucureşti | ||
2005–2006 | Red Star Belgrade | ||
2006 | Gaziantepspor | ||
2007 | Al-Ain | ||
2007 | Dinamo Bucureşti | ||
2008–2009 | Catania | ||
2009–2010 | Palermo | ||
2010 | Al-Nassr | ||
2011–2013 | Al-Nasr | ||
2013–2014 | Al Jazira | ||
2015 | Sampdoria | ||
2015–2016 | Al-Shaab | ||
2016 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | ||
Honours
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* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
Walter Zenga (Italian pronunciation: [ˈvalter ˈdzeŋɡa]; born 28 April 1960) is a retired Italian footballer and current football manager. He was a long-time goalkeeper for Internazionale and the Italian national team. He also holds Romanian citizenship.
During his playing career, Zenga was part of the Italian squad that finished fourth at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, United States and was starting goalkeeper for the Azzurri team that finished third in the 1990 FIFA World Cup tournament held in Italy, keeping a World Cup record unbeaten streak. A three-time winner of the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award, Zenga is regarded by pundits as one of the best goalkeepers of all time, and in 2013 was voted the eighth best goalkeeper of the past quarter-century by IFFHS. In 2000, he also placed 20th in the World Keeper of the Century Elections by the same organisation.
After retiring as a player, Zenga briefly became an actor in an Italian soap opera and also a pundit on Italian TV. He has since became a well travelled head coach and has managed clubs in USA, Italy, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and England.
Zenga joined Inter Milan in 1982, after starting his professional career in 1978 in the lower divisions of Italian football (his first team was Salernitana in Serie C1, and he also played for Savona and Sambenedettese). Initially (in the 1982–83 season) he was the substitute of Ivano Bordon, who was one of the top Italian goalkeepers of his era, as he had been Dino Zoff's reserve in the 1982 FIFA World Cup. However, Zenga played Inter's matches in the Coppa Italia, impressing enough that the club decided not to buy another goalkeeper after Bordon's decision to move to Sampdoria during the summer of 1983. Zenga became Inter's starting goalkeeper in the 1983–84 season, where he conceded only 23 goals, better than any other goalkeeper in that season.