Luca Pellegrini

Luca Pellegrini spent 11 seasons in Serie A, making 262 appearances and scoring three goals. Most of his time was at Sampdoria, between 1983-92. He also played for Hellas Verona and Torino. All his major trophies were won with Sampdoria. He won the Italian League title in 1991, the Italian Cup in 1985, 1988-89 and the Italian Super Cup in 1991. His finest moment, however, was in captaining them to a 2-0 victory over Belgian Club Anderlecht in the final of the 1990 UEFA Cup-winners’ Cup in Goteborg. Playing for Sampdoria that day were also two fellow Olympians, Gianluca Pagliuca and Pietro Vierchowod.

Pellegrini had represented Italy at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but played just 29 minutes, in the disastrous 4-0 defeat by Zambia, when he came on as a 61st minute substitute for Roberto Cravero. Pellegrini was one of two Italians sharing the same name at the Seoul Games; the other Luca Pellegrini was a swimmer.