Mauro Lustrinelli

Mauro Lustrinelli

Personal information
Date of birth	26 February 1976
Place of birth	Bellinzona, Switzerland
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
1986–1989	US Giubiasco
1989–1992	AC Bellinzona
1992–1994	US Giubiasco
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1994–2001	Bellinzona	164	(109)
2001–2004	FC Wil	79	(22)
2004–2006	FC Thun	66	(36)
2006–2007	Sparta Prague	25	(6)
2007–2008	FC Luzern	43	(16)
2008–2011	AC Bellinzona	77	(34)
2010	→ Young Boys (loan)	12	(3)
2011	FC Thun	18	(4)
Total		484	(230)
National team
2005–2008	Switzerland	12	(0)
Teams managed
2012	Thun
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Mauro "Lustri" Lustrinelli (born 26 February 1976) is a former professional Swiss footballer. He is also a former player of the Swiss national team. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration and wrote a thesis about the Italian Serie A.

Career

He started his professional career at the club AC Bellinzona in 1994 and played for them until 2001. Then he transferred to FC Wil and played there for the next three seasons before transferring to FC Thun in 2004. In 2005, he was the Swiss Super League's second highest goalscorer with 20 goals scored and also qualified with the club for the UEFA Champions League. In 2006, he signed for Sparta Prague but after one year at the club he returned to Switzerland and joined FC Luzern in order to play first team football leading up to UEFA EURO 2008 in Austria & Switzerland. After one season he returned 2008 to AC Bellinzona, where he started his career as a professional back in 1994.

Lustrinelli made his debut for the Swiss national team on 17 August 2005 in a friendly match against Norway, having at that time won a total of six international caps for the team. He is also part of the Swiss team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany. On 19 June 2006, he was substituted in to play the last four minutes of the Swiss team's World Cup group match against Togo and after only one minute of playing he created the assist that allowed Tranquillo Barnetta to score the goal for the final 2–0 win for Switzerland, giving them a real chance of passing the group stage. The 2006 FIFA World Cup was his last appearance in the Swiss jersey. He was not selected for the UEFA Euro 2008.

In Ticino, the Canton where Lustrinelli is originally from, after the great game against Togo a fanatical "Lustrimania" exploded. In some places, this fanaticism was expressed with such intensity that students, so-called "Lustrini", were prohibited from wearing Lustrinelli's national team shirt to school.

Being originally from the northern part of Ticino (the Sopraceneri), Lustrinelli grew up close to the referee Massimo Busacca who represented Switzerland at the FIFA World Cup 2006. Within their close friends in Ticino, Lustrinelli and Massimo are known as "twin brothers."

External links

• Official UEFA player page
• AC Bellinzona profile (Italian)
• Mauro Lustrinelli at National-Football-Teams.com