Born on March 13, 1955, he was an important player for Roma. Throughout the 1980s he stood out as a fast and skilful footballer who positioned himself successfully close to the right flank. His great performance was in the World Cup in Spain, played in 1982, where he was chosen as a member of the ideal team.
In the 1982 World Cup, Italy was the great winner, with a criticized but effective football that allowed the Azzurri to beat West Germany in the final thanks to people like Paolo Rossi, Gaetano Scirea, Marco Tardelli, Dino Zoff, among the others.
Bruno Conti was one of the figures of that Italian football which experienced a period of maximum splendor for the great champions who were part of Serie A, one of them was Diego Armando Maradona
But there is an Italian in that national team who has distinguished himself in that world, who played almost his entire career for Roma: we are talking about Bruno Conti. This right winger (who also played in midfield) was born in Nettuno in the province of Rome. Before football, he played baseball, this is because Neptune is considered the “baseball city” thanks to its tradition in this sport and which is explained by the close link with the United States during the end of the Second World War. But he left this sport to dedicate himself to playing football. His first training sessions were in Nettuno, before he emigrated to a nearby town: Anzio, where he joined the local team between 1972 and 1973.
Conti at the time of the first championships in Rome
From the Tyrrhenian coast, Bruno Conti moved to Roma in 1973, concluding his career in the youth team a year later. He made his debut in land in the 1974-’75 season, exactly on 16 February 1975 against Bologna in a match won 2-1 at home.
This was one of the three matches played in that Italian championship, then for lack of other opportunities to take the field, Conti moved to Genoa with whom he played from 1975 to 1976 for one season, 42 matches, scoring three goals and being promoted to A league.
Accounts in Genoa
He returned from his loan to Roma, playing two championships with the capital team between 1976 and 1978 thanks to the explicit request of Nils Liedholm, coach of the Giallorossi who asked for the player’s return. In the ’77-’78 period, however, Conti returned to the sidelines, as the new coach, Gustavo Giagnoni, trusted him much less. If in the 1976-’77 tournament he was present in 29 matches, in the following championship he only made 17 appearances. So Gustavo Giagnoni sent him back on loan to Genoa, returning to play in Serie B from 1978 to 1979.
Idol of the Romanist “Curva Sud”.
He returns to Roma and begins his consecration in the capital team, where he will establish himself as an important protagonist of the entire Italian football, demonstrating all his abilities: he was recognized as an infallible pointer, but he could also act from further back as a midfielder on the flank right. Being left-footed, he liked to make diagonals towards the inside, thanks to his speed and ability to dribble, being common to see him use dribbling and feints of all kinds, to tackle opponents and exploit his game to allow a teammate to kick on goal. He wasn’t one to waste an opportunity, he always made the right choice.
In the Italian national team
In his new period in the Roma team, Nils Liedholm was back to being the coach, so Conti, already mature, received all the trust of the Swede, which allowed him to remain in the starting lineup, and in Serie A, for the whole ’79-’80: 29 games plus another 9 in the Italian Cup, which was his first career trophy, won at the age of 25.
Roma defeated Torino in the final on penalties, after a goalless draw. The second penalty was scored by Conti himself.
His great performances with Roma made Enzo Bearzot, the Italian national team coach, put him under observation, and this is how Conti made his debut on 11 October 1980 when Italy faced Luxembourg away. Conti played the whole match and from that moment on he became a fundamental piece. It was precisely from Luxembourg that his great and historic moment began to be shaped: the 1982 World Cup played in Spain.
Accounts in yellow and red
Conti played all the matches of that season world: In the group stage he faced Poland (0-0), Peru (1-1), where he scored the goal, and Cameroon (1-1). In the second group phase the Azzurri clashed with the two South American giants: Argentina and Brazil, the former were reigning champions and the latter were the candidates to win the tournament, but Bearzot’s men left the bad image of the first phase and won 2 – 1 against albiceleste of Maradona and 3-2 against i green-gold in Zico.
Conti at the Spanish World Cup against Brazil
In the semi-final Conti and his teammates left Poland behind 2-0 and in the final they played against West Germany, then European champions. They overwhelm the panzer Germans and beat them 3-1. The Roma player was one of the best of the tournament, which is why he was chosen as a member of the ideal team of the competition, one of his most important individual awards.
With the World Cup and the then President of the Republic Sandro Pertini
The man born in Nettuno continued to be linked to Roma until the day of his retirement, and just like in the Italian national team, he enjoyed three incredible years – Scudetto and European Cup final – but unlike Madrid the dream of the final is been crushed. We are in 1984, after always very hard-fought matches, the Giallorossi reach the final of the most important continental tournament which is played in their stadium, theOlympic From Rome. To separate them from the big-eared cup there is only Liverpool anymore. At the end of extra time the score was tied at 1-1. Everything will have to be resolved on penalties, but in the end it is the English who take the victory, after Bruno Conti and Francesco Graziani himself miss two shots against the only one missed by the Englishman Steve Nicol.
Together with Falcão with the Scudetto sewn onto the Roma shirt
But before that painful moment it is necessary to highlight the successes, in particular the Italian championship in 1983, an important milestone for a team that was not used to winning in Serie A, crushed by monsters like Milan, Inter and especially Juventus. It was precisely in those years that the Capitoline team of president Dino Viola experienced a heated rivalry with the Piedmontese bianconeri of the lawyer Gianni Agnelli.
Throughout his career at Roma, Bruno Conti won a total of one Italian Championship (1983), five Italian Cups (1980, 1981, 1984, 1986 and 1991), as well as the 1982 World Cup.
Bruno Conti was an important Roma player and a symbol, along with Pablito Rossi, of that unforgettable one world which every time we remember it makes us feel young and happy again.
Mario Bocchio
2024-03-14 21:10:01
#Dribbling #feints #kinds
