Enzo Bearzot

Born in Aiello del Friuli, in the Friulian Province of Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Bearzot was son of a bank teller and attended high school at Udine. Enzo Bearzot made his debut in professional football with Pro Gorizia in 1946, a team he left in 1948 to join Internazionale. After three seasons with the Nerazzurri, Bearzot moved to Sicily and joined Catania for three more seasons. In 1954, he moved to Torino, which was rebuilding after the tragedy of Superga in 1949. In two seasons as a starter he played 65 matches, scoring one goal. In 1956 he returned to Internazionale where he appeared 27 times, the last of which was a 3–2 defeat at Bologna on 9 June 1957. The following year he returned to Torino. Here, he made 164 appearances and scored 7 goals for the Granata before retiring in 1964, aged 37, to take up coaching. In his playing career, Bearzot totalled 251 appearances in Italy's Serie A, being called up once to play for Italy, making his debut on 27 November 1955 in a 2–0 1955–56 Central European International Cup match defeat to Hungary.

After having ended his playing career, Bearzot became assistant coach of Torino, working alongside Italian managers Nereo Rocco and Giovan Battista Fabbri. He successively moved in Tuscany to take his first head coaching job in Tuscany at the helm of Serie C side Prato. However, Bearzot did not go on a club career, and chose instead to start working for the Italian Football Federation: first as under-23 head coach, then as assistant coach of Ferruccio Valcareggi in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany. After the World Cup, Bearzot was appointed as assistant coach of Fulvio Bernardini, and was then promoted head coach of Italy in 1975. Bearzot drove the national team to fourth place in the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina. This performance was repeated in UEFA Euro 1980, hosted by Italy.

In the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain, after poor performances in the three first matches, Bearzot announced the so-called silenzio stampa (press silence) in order to avoid rising criticism from the Italian press. Following that, the Italian team finally started to play its best football, defeating Argentina and Brazil (see Italy v Brazil (1982 FIFA World Cup)) in the second round, Poland in the semi-final and West Germany in the Final, and winning the World Cup for the first time since 1938. Italy did not qualify for UEFA Euro 1984 in France. Bearzot resigned after the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, which saw Italy being defeated in the round of 16 by France. Bearzot was criticised during…

Bearzot was highly regarded for his tactical prowess, meticulousness, and versatility as a manager. He often studied his opponents in great detail before matches, in order to plan out and prepare his team's strategy; he was also known for his ability to adopt different tactics, formations, and playing styles, depending on the style of play of the opposition, and for having the capacity to find a system which best suited his players. At the same time, he preferred not to impose set plays and tactical plans on his players, as he believed that above all, they should have the freedom to express their ability and individual talent. At the 1978 World Cup, his Italian side often adopted an attractive, offensive-minded possession game based on passing, creativity, movement, attacking flair, and technique, due to the individual skill of his players; the front three – made up of centre-forward Paolo Rossi, and wingers Roberto Bettega and Franco Causio – would also often change positions with one another, in order to disorient the opposing defenders.

At the 1982 World Cup, he usually used a fluid 4–3–3 formation, which was capable of shifting into a 4–4–2, 5–2–3, or 3–5–2 formation throughout the course of a match; in his 4–3–3 system, Bearzot usually used two creative wingers (usually Bruno Conti and Francesco Graziani, the latter of whom usually also served as a second striker) and a centre-forward (usually Paolo Rossi) up-front, a playmaker (usually Giancarlo Antognoni) and two…

Bearzot was married to Luisa; together they had a son Glauco, and a daughter, Cinzia. Bearzot died on 21 December 2010 in Milan at the age of 83, exactly 42 years after Vittorio Pozzo; he was buried in the family tomb in the cemetery of Paderno d'Adda.