Pietro Vierchowod

Regarded as one of the finest Italian defenders of all-time, Pietro Vierchowod had a very successful club career, and internationally was a member of the Italian squad that won the 1982 FIFA World Cup. The son of a Ukranian soldier, he was, because of his descent, known as “The Tsar”. Argentine international Diego Maradona once described Vierchowod as the toughest opponent he had ever faced.

Vierchowod made his international début against the Netherlands at the Montevideo Mundialito, in January 1981. He continued to play for his country for 12 more years, winning 45 caps and scoring two goals. Although he did not play, Vierchowod was a member of Enzo Bearzot’s winning World Cup squad in 1982 but, two years later, when Bearzot was in charge of the Olympic squad, he got to play in all six games, as Italy finished fourth. Vierchowod was also a member of the Italian squads at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups and, in a qualifying match against Malta for the 1994 World Cup, he became the oldest ever Italian international goalscorer, at the age of 33 years 352 days.

At club level, Vierchowod started his career at Romanese In 1976 and, in a 24-year career, made 647 Italian League appearances and scored 42 goals. He played for some of Italy’s top sides, and with A. S. Roma in 1983, won Serie A, a success he repeated with Sampdoria in 1991. He enjoyed his greatest successes at Sampdoria, winning the Italian Cup five times 1986-94, Italian Super Cup three times 1988-89, 1994, and in 1990 the UEFA Cup-winners’ Cup. He had a one-year spell at Juventus, and in that time lifted the Italian Super Cup and UEFA Champions’ League. He retired from playing after three seasons with Piacenza, in 2000, and turned to coaching, mostly with clubs in the Italian B and C Leagues, and also had an 11-match spell with Hungarian team Honvéd. Unfortunately, his coaching career did not meet with the same success as his playing career.