Who is Italy's first ever footballer

While Italian soccer and Serie A are now in decline, its long history and glorious traditions still remain in the hearts of every Serie A fan. 2015 Gazzetta dello Sport named the top ten legendary players in Italian football, voted for by Italian journalists, and each of them has carved a brilliant chapter in the history of Italian soccer.

10. Dino Zoff

As the only Italian goalkeeper to have won both the World Cup and the European Cup, he has made brilliant achievements both as a player and as a coach after his retirement. He has moved through the Serie A clubs of Udinese, Mantova, Napoli and Juventus, and won seven Serie A titles.In 1982, his outstanding performance enabled Italy to finally win the World Cup, and at the age of 40, he became the oldest player to win a World Cup title.In 1998, after the World Cup in France, he turned out to be the coach of the Italian national team, and led the Blucerchiati to win the second place in Euro 2000. Runner-up. He has made the Italian goal one of the most difficult to break into, and has held the record of 1,145 minutes without conceding a goal, which is still unbroken. In 1984, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by FIFA, who said in a document that "no one has been as reliable as he".

9. Silvio Piola

Piola's career began in Provicelli and ended in Novara, during which he also played for Juventus, Lazio and other Serie A teams. Speaking of Piola, it is necessary to mention his goal-scoring record, he made 537 appearances in Serie A, scored 274 goals, ranked first in Serie A on the total goal ranking, plus cup goals, he scored a total of **** for the club to score 359 goals, a number that is still the object of all the Italian strikers to look up to. With the national team, his performances helped Italy win the 1938 World Cup, first with two goals to help knock out hosts France 3-1, and then in the final to put Italy on the back foot against Hungary and ultimately help the team defend their title.

8. Buffon

After moving from Parma to Juventus in 2001, Buffon has guarded the Zebras to this day, even when the team was relegated to the second division due to the Phonegate scandal. After Zoff, he is the best goalkeeper in Italy and one of the best goalkeepers in European and world soccer in the last fifteen years. He has won eight Serie A titles, but two were canceled due to Phonegate. In the national team Buffon's performance is still stable, he was outstanding in the 2006 World Cup, the whole Cup he was only by Zidane in the final scored a penalty and a teammate's oval goal, to help Italy four times to win the cup at the same time, he was also in the World Cup in the history books, and won that year's Silver Ball Award. He edged out Kassi for the award in the IFFHS' list of the best goalkeepers of the 21st century and was voted the greatest goalkeeper of the past quarter-century (1987-2011).

7. Totti

Serie A now has a living totem in the form of Totti. Born and raised in Rome, he joined FC Roma at the age of 13 and plays to this day. The prince of Rome is already old, but he is still on the field to one record after another run, so far he has made 743 appearances for Rome, scored 300 goals, the league scored up to 243 goals, still behind the first ranked Piola 31, although the difficulty is greater, but Totti is still very much a chance to impact this record. Totti and Rome's contract ends in 2016, perhaps Totti will retire, perhaps 40-year-old Totti and Rome renewed for two years, continue as captain for the city of Rome on the killing. In any case, among active Italian players, Totti is a role model and a legend.

6. Valentino Mazzola

He was hailed by Italy's 1982 World Cup-winning coach, Beazotte, as Italy's greatest ever player, a man who could carry an entire team on his back. It has been claimed that it took a combination of Daniele De Rossi, Gattuso and Steven Gerrard to achieve his mythical ability, and in the 1940s he led Torino to the top of Serie A on five occasions, creating a dynasty of his own. Tragically, the entire Torino team, including Mazzola, died in the 1949 Supega crash, and his son, Sandro Mazzola, followed in his father's footsteps and became one of the founding fathers of the great Inter Milan of the 1960s.

5. Paolo Maldini

In 2009, Maldini officially bid farewell to the Red and Blacks, ending his 24-year Milan career. He, like Totti, has become a city's flag, and in the British media's top 10 loyal players, Maldini pipped Giggs and Puyol to the top spot. Considered one of Italy's finest left-backs, he made 902 appearances for Milan in 24 years***, and although he rarely scored as a wing-back, even the best strikers would never have been able to take advantage of the left-hand side of the pitch that he guarded. He won seven Serie A titles and five Champions League titles with AC Milan, and became the first person to win the UEFA Lifetime Achievement Award in the 2002-03 season, with countless individual honors. After his retirement, the club decided to retire his beloved No. 3 jersey along with him, immortalizing him in Milan's history.

4. Gigi Riva

Nicknamed "Rolling Thunder," Riva is the eternal myth of Sardinian side Cagliari, where he scored 164 goals in 315 matches, helping the common man's side win the only league title in their history in the 1969-70 season. The Cagliari club also retired his number 11 shirt in honor of the legendary player. And his record of 35 goals in 42 games for the Italian national team remains unbroken.

3. Meazza

Legendary player Meazza started out at Inter Milan and then moved to AC Milan, scoring 216 goals in 367 Serie A appearances and winning the Serie A title three times, and in recognition of his contribution the Milan municipal government re-designated the Stadio San Siro as "Stadio Giuseppe Meazza". "In 1934, his heroics enabled Italy to win its first World Cup and successfully defend the title in 1938, and if World War II had not prevented the World Cup from being held, Italy might well have achieved a third consecutive World Cup in that era, and it wouldn't be Brazil that would have preserved the Rembrandt Cup in perpetuity.

2. Robert Baggio

Baggio is perhaps the most influential player in the history of Italian soccer, not only because of his outstanding skills, but also because of his handsome appearance and melancholic temperament. 1994 World Cup final penalty conceded after the back of the sadness of the title "Prince of Melancholy". But what's more important is the value Baggio created on the pitch. He played for seven Serie A teams, including Juve, Inter and AC Milan, and won two Serie A titles, scoring 205 league goals. He was the first Italian player to be named FIFA's World Footballer of the Year and was inducted into the inaugural Italian Hall of Fame in 2011.

1. Gianni Rivera

The media's greatest player in Italian soccer is Rivera, one of the most iconic players at AC Milan, who was recruited by his birthplace, Alessandria, in 1956 at the age of 13 and bought by AC Milan at the age of 16, where he stayed for 20 years until his retirement. He won three Serie A titles and two European Champions Cups with Milan, was Serie A's top scorer with 17 goals, and was the first Italian to win the Ballon d'Or. Although his overall scoring data is not dazzling, but on the field he is the absolute core of the attack, AC Milan's legendary scorer Van Basten once said: "I'm just a fragment of the history of AC Milan, and Rivera is eternal.