Giacomo Bulgarelli

Giacomo Bulgarelli

Personal information
Full name	Giacomo Bulgarelli
Date of birth	24 October 1940
Place of birth	Portonovo di Medicina, Italy
Date of death	12 February 2009 (aged 68)
Place of death	Bologna, Italy
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1959–1975	Bologna	391	(43)
1975	Hartford Bicentennials	2	(0)
National team
1962–1967	Italy	29	(7)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Giacomo Bulgarelli (24 October 1940 – 12 February 2009) was an Italian international footballer who played as a midfielder.

Playing career

Club

Bulgarelli was born in Portonovo di Medicina, Bologna.^[1] His entire Italian club career was spent with Bologna, for whom he made 391 Serie A appearances between 1958–59 and 1974–75.^[2] He won the title with the club in 1964, after they defeated Herrera's "Grande" Inter Milan in a play-off.^[3] With 488 appearances in all competitions, he is Bologna's record all-time appearance holder.^[4]

He finished his career with a brief spell in 1975 with the Hartford Bicentennials in the USA.^[2]

International

Bulgarelli played for Italy at the 1960 Summer Olympics, and then made his debut for the Italian national team at the 1962 World Cup, on 7 June, scoring two goals in a 3–0 win in Italy's final group match against Switzerland, which were unable to prevent the team from being eliminated in the first round. With these goals, he became the youngest ever goalscorer for Italy at the FIFA World Cup, at the age of 21 years and 226 days.^[5] He also played all three matches for Italy at the 1966 World Cup.^[1]

He made a total of 29 appearances for the national side, scoring 7 times.^[6]

After retirement

After his retirement from professional football, he worked as a sporting director, and he also had a successful career as a football commentator and pundit, working with RAI, Mediaset, and La Gazzetta dello Sport; he also partnered up with fellow pundit Massimo Caputi to provide the Italian commentary for the EA Sports FIFA video game series from 1998–2002.^[7]

He died in February 2009, after a lengthy illness.^[3]

Honours

Club

Bologna

• Serie A: 1963–64
• Coppa Italia: 1969–70, 1973–74
• Mitropa Cup: 1961
• Anglo-Italian League Cup: 1970

International

Italy

• UEFA European Championship: 1968

Individual

• Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2014 (Posthumous honour)^[8]

References

1. "Giacomo Bulgarelli". Olympic Sports. Sports Reference. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
2. Bulgarelli's stats by season at enciclopediadelcalcio (Italian)
3. CORRADO SANNUCCI (13 February 2009). "Morto Giacomo Bulgarelli storica bandiera del Bologna". La Repubblica (in Italian) (L'Espresso). Retrieved 14 April 2013.
4. "I Rossoblu di tutti i tempi" (in Italian). Bologna FC. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
5. "Record e Curiosità" (in Italian). La Repubblica. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
6. "Nazionale in cifre: Bulgarelli, Giacomo" (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
7. "E' morto Giacomo Bulgarelli Con lui scudetto a Bologna". Retrieved 2 January 2015.
8. "Hall of fame, 10 new entry: con Vialli e Mancini anche Facchetti e Ronaldo" [Hall of fame, 10 new entries: with Vialli and Mancini also Facchetti and Ronaldo] (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.