The
1986/87 season started in the aftermath of the 1986 World Cup that Diego
Maradona had dominated single handedly.
In
doing so he had signaled a power shift. He was now the undisputed number one
player on the planet, replacing the ageing Michel Platini.
The
previous season’s Scudetto triumph could not hide the fact that Juventus was
clearly fading after dominating for most of the 1970s and 80s.
Legendary
manager Giovanni Trappatoni left Juventus that summer after a decade filled
with triumphs to take over at Internazionale Milano.
Juventus
appointed former Como Manager Rino Marchesi who many felt had done a good job
by keeping up a small team like Como in the elite.
Juventus
had actually achieved a major coup that summer by acquiring the highly coveted
Welsh striker Ian Rush of Liverpool.
Due to a foreign players transfer embargo on all teams (except newly
promoted ones), he was loaned back to Liverpool that season, in line to replace
the following season Platini, who many already expected to depart.
Otherwise
the squad remained intact with Platini, Michael Laudrup as foreigners and with
a backbone of veterans such as Scirea, Cabrini, Brio, Manfredonia and Bonini.
Inter property Aldo Serena was loaned for another season at Juventus. Their
main acquisitions were Beniamino Vignola (returning after a season at Verona)
and Roberto Solda from Atalanta.
After
the World Cup triumph, many expected Maradona to lift Napoli even higher. The
previous season’s third place had opened the door to European Football and just
like the previous season, they made some efficient purchases.
The
side managed by Ottavio Bianchi signed the young Italian International
midfielder, the appropriately named, Fernando De Napoli from Avellino, along
with future Italian International striker Andrea Carnevalle from Udinese. Their other key arrivals included Francesco
Romano from Triestina and Giuseppe Volpecina from Pisa.
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Photo
From: Guerin Sportivo, September 24-30, 1986
(Napoli new signing Andrea Carnevalle) |
These
additions made a squad that already contained current and former Italian
Internationals such as Salvatore Bagni and Bruno Giordano even stronger.
Internazionale
Milano also reinforced itself for the coming campaign. In addition to handing
over the reins to Trappatoni, talented midfielder Gianfranco Mateolli arrived
from Sampdoria (He would earn his only caps for Italy that season), Adriano
Piraccini joined from Bari and Oliviero Garlini from Lazio.
The
side was already high on quality and contained Walter Zenga, Riccardo Ferri,
Giuseppe Bergomi, Giuseppe Baresi, Marco Tardelli, Alessandro Altobelli, Pietro
Fanna and West Germany’s Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
They
had made a change as far as their second foreigner, gone was Republic of
Ireland veteran Liam Brady, who was offloaded to Ascoli. In his place came
Argentina’s former Captain Daniel Passarella from Fiorentina.
Other
veterans such as Evaristo Beccalossi and Fulvio Collovatti were offloaded to
Brescia and Udinese respectively, while Giampiero Marini retired.
This
was Silvio Berlusconi’s first full season as owner of AC Milan. He made some
team additions while still retaining Nils Liedholm (for the time being) in
control of the team. An ageing Paolo Rossi was offloaded to Verona and in his
place came Giuseppe Galderisi from the opposite direction. AS Roma Defender
Dario Bonetti, Atalanta Midfielder (and soon new International) Roberto Donadoni
arrived along with Fiorentina pair of goalkeeper Giovanni Galli and Daniele
Massaro. The English pair of Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley were still retained,
however, as the season progressed it became apparent that both would soon be
replaced with the Dutch pair of Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten.
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Photo
From: Guerin Sportivo, September 24-30, 1986
(AC
Milan’s Roberto Donadoni)
|
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Photo
From: Guerin Sportivo, December 10-16, 1986
(Paolo Rossi at Verona) |
Argentinean
talent Claudio Borghi had also been signed to be integrated once the embargo
was lifted.
Sampdoria
appointed the Yugoslav Vujadin Boskov as Manager and registered the arrivals of
foreign pair of West German Hans-Peter Briegel from Verona and AS Roma’s
Brazilian midfielder Toninho Cerezo.
AS
Roma, still under the Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson (although Angelo Sormani
actually possessed the license to manage), held on to the Pole Zbigniew Boniek
and other ageing stars like Bruno Conti and Roberto Pruzzo. Their main
acquisition was Denmark’s Klaus Berggreen from Pisa.
The
rest of their arrivals were relative young unknowns such as Marco Baroni, Paolo
Baldieri and Massimo Agostini.
Other
notable transfers included the arrival of Swedish striker Johnny Ekstroem at
newly promoted Empoli (in November), Argentinean striker Ramon Diaz moving from
Avellino to Fiorentina, Dutch striker Wim Kieft joining Torino from Pisa and
the double transfer of veteran strikers Francesco Graziani (from AS Roma) and
Argentinean striker Daniel Bertoni (from Napoli) to Udinese.
Before
the season had even started Udinese seemed destined to be one of the relegated
teams, since the League had imposed them a nine-point handicap due to a match
fixing scandal (Totonero 1986).
As
for myself, at the end of previous season I had by chance discovered the
magazine ‘Soccer America’ and had subscribed to it. This weekly magazine kept me up to date with all the scores and
the news.
This
was the only specialized Soccer magazine in the United States at the time (At
least that’s what I believe, I never came across another). Their coverage of
the European Soccer scene and International matches in general was very
informative, specially given the lack of interest in the nation as a whole.
While
there was still no television coverage to speak of, at least I could read about
the events and the scores.
This
was still a better alternative than the previous year, when I was completely in
the dark for the entire season.
As
far the events on the field, both Juventus and Napoli started the season in
strong fashion. Until the eighth match of the season the teams were equal on
points and undefeated.
They
had both been eliminated on the European front at that stage. Napoli had been
defeated by French Club Toulouse in the First Round of the UEFA Cup and
Juventus had been eliminated by Real Madrid in the second round of the
Champions Cup.
The
turning point of the season was on Matchday 9 (November 9th), when
Napoli visited Juventus in the table-topping clash of the season.
Juventus
struck first early in the second half through Michael Laudrup, however, a more
confident Napoli struck back with three goals through Ferrario, Giordano and
Volpecina. This win signaled Napoli’s title winning potential in addition to
Juventus’ decline and capitulation.
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Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 83, February 1987
(Diego
Maradona between Massimo Bonini and Sergio Brio, November 9, 1986, Juventus
1-Napoli 3)
|
Juventus
never really recovered from this loss and in the following weeks went further
behind and suffered more heavy losses vs. AS Roma and Sampdoria.
Inter
became Napoli’s closest challengers and narrowed the gap.
By
Matchday 14, the two teams were level on points as Napoli suffered its first
defeat of the season at the hands of Fiorentina (1-3).
However,
by the following week Napoli was back on top after a win at Ascoli coupled with
Inter’s loss at Verona.
Napoli
started the second half of the season with five consecutive wins, but Inter
still kept pace.
By
March, AS Roma crept up the table and was runner-up, but quickly lost pace and
Inter was back on.
Inter’s
Daniel Passarella was involved in an ugly incident, when he kicked a ball boy
in a match vs. Sampdoria on March 8th (1-3 loss), who was guilty in
his eyes of delaying in giving him the ball. He was fined, suspended (6
matches) and apologized.
With
seven matches left, Inter defeated Napoli (1-0) to close the gap somewhat.
By
Matchday 26 (April 12th), there were some worries in the Napoli camp
as they were defeated (0-3) at Verona. Inter won that same day to close the gap
to 2 points.
This
was as close Inter got and in the coming weeks they imploded and lost composure
by losing two of their last four matches.
The
title decider was on Matchday 29 (May 10th), Napoli hosted
Fiorentina and the one-one tie gave them the point they needed to win their
first ever Scudetto.
Diego
Maradona even stated that Napoli’s title had made him even happier than winning
the World Cup.
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Photo
From: Onze, Issue 138, June 1987
(May
10, 1987, Napoli 1-Fiorentina 1)
|
Diego
Maradona endured an unforgettable season during which he also became a father
for the first time and also had to deal with a paternity suit early in the
season.
Napoli
ended a memorable season a few weeks later by clinching the League and Cup
double by defeating Atalanta.
Other
noteworthy events at this end of the season included Silvio Berlusconi’s
decision to remove Liedholm and appoint Fabio Capello to guarantee European
qualification for AC Milan. He did so by winning a playoff vs. Sampdoria
following the conclusion of the regular season.
AC
Milan’s Pietro Paolo Virdis was the top goalscorer with 17 goals, with a young
Gianluca Vialli behind with 12 goals.
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Photo
From: Guerin Sportivo, September 24-30, 1986
(AC
Milan’s Pietro Paolo Virdis)
|
The
already condemned Udinese was relegated with Atalanta and Brescia.
By
the last match, Juventus surprisingly moved up to second position, having more
or less been out of the title race for much of the season.
Juventus’
last match (May 17, Brescia 3-2 win) was significant as it was Frenchman Michel
Platini’s last ever official match as he retired from the game. The triple
European player of the year enjoyed great success in Italy, except this last
season, where he was a shadow of his former self. Though still young enough
(almost 32 years old), it was clear that the stress of the Italian Serie A had
aged and jaded him.
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Photo
From: Onze, Issue 138, June 1987
(Platini
at the conclusion of his last ever match, may 17, 1987, Juventus 3-Brescia 2)
|
His
retirement coincided with the general decline of Juventus as they would not win
another Scudetto for nearly a decade. In the coming years they would lose their
position in the hierarchy, as the new power was Napoli and the two Milanese
clubs. The Juventus/Roma axis that had dominated the League for most of the
decade was now overtaken.
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Photo
From: Mondial, new series, Issue 85, April 1987
(the
changing of the guard)
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This
end of the season also brought an end for many stars of the past. In addition
to Platini, other foreigners such as Liam Brady (transferred at midseason to
West Ham United), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (eventually transferred to Servette)
and Daniel Bertoni (retirement) left the Serie A.
AC
Milan’s Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley transferred to the French League and Wim
Kieft joined the ambitious PSV Eindhoven.
In
addition many of the stars of the 1982 Generation also ended their Serie A
careers. Gabriele Oriali and Paolo Rossi retired after final seasons at Fiorentina
and Verona respectively. Claudio Gentile left Fiorentina to play one last final
season in the Serie B with Piacenza. Giancarlo Antognoni (Fiorentina) and Marco
Tardelli (Inter) left the Serie A and started the process of pre-retirement by
joining Rummenigge in the Swiss League.
With
the transfer embargo on the foreign players now lifted the new season looked
exciting with the impending arrivals of Careca (Napoli), Rush (Juventus),
Gullit and van Basten (AC Milan), Voeller (AS Roma), Scifo (Inter) and Berthold
(Verona).
However,
historically, the most significant decision turned out to be a coaching
appointment (1987/88 season, to be continued…..)
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Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 83, February 1987
(Napoli squad, Top, left to right: Giuseppe
Bruscholotti,Tebaldo Bigliardi , Raffaelle Di Fusco, Claudio Garella, Andrea
Carnevalle, Massimo Filardi , Middle,
left to right: Ciro Ferrara, Fernando
De Napoli, Antonio Carranante, Giuseppe Volpecina, Salvatore Bagni, Moreno
Ferrario, Luciano Sola, Alessandro Renica
, Bottom, left to right: Ciro Muro, Costanzo Celestini, Diego Maradona,
Ottavio Bianchi (Manager), Luigi Caffarelli, Bruno Giordano, Pietro Puzone) |
