Fausto Pizzi’s career reads like a whirlwind tour of Serie A, B, and C – punctuated with flashes of brilliance, heavy luggage, and more shirt changes than a rock star on a world tour.
PART ONE
Born in Rho on 21 July 1967, Pizzi’s journey began at Internazionale, the Milanese giants where he emerged as a promising midfielder with deft touches and a sharp eye for a pass. However, like many young hopefuls trying to make their name at a star-studded club, breaking into Inter’s first team in the late 1980s was akin to finding a parking spot outside San Siro on derby day – possible, but only with the luck of Jupiter aligned with Saturn.
Therefore, it wasn’t long before Inter sent their young prospect out to gain experience, and in 1987, Pizzi found himself on loan at Centese, a modest Serie C club where he played 28 times and found the net twice. It was hardly glamorous, but it was vital grounding, and it showed that he was not afraid to get stuck in at the sharp end of Italian football.
Moreover, the following season he was sent out again, this time to L.R. Vicenza, a club with more history but still toiling in Serie B at the time. There, he began to find his rhythm, making 29 appearances and scoring five goals – a respectable return for a midfielder and an indication that he was ready for a higher platform.
In consequence, the 1989–90 season offered Pizzi a more tantalising opportunity – a loan to Parma, who were still finding their feet in the top flight under the stewardship of Nevio Scala and the patronage of Parmalat’s chequebook. While his time at Parma was initially brief, his performances were enough to put him on the radar.
What’s more, Inter, despite their UEFA Cup success in 1990–91 – a triumph Pizzi was technically part of, having played a handful of matches – decided to part ways with him permanently. And in 1991, Parma, now an ambitious Serie A outfit on the rise, brought him back for good.
PART TWO
It was with Parma during the 1992–93 campaign that Pizzi tasted true continental success, as the club swept to victory in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, defeating Royal Antwerp 3-1 in the final in Wembley, with goals from Minotti, Melli, and Cuoghi. Pizzi’s role in that squad wasn’t always headline-grabbing, but his contributions from midfield helped keep the engine ticking, and his versatility meant he could plug gaps and link up play in ways that made Parma’s attack more fluid and unpredictable.
However, football, is rarely predictable, and in 1993 Pizzi moved to Udinese. There, he became more of a mainstay, featuring regularly across two seasons and bagging a personal best 10 goals in the 1993–94 campaign – not bad for a player more known for threading passes than smashing them in.
In contrast, the next move to Napoli in 1995 was less fruitful. The Partenopei were no longer the force they had been in the Maradona years and were lurching between crises like a Vespa on cobbled streets. Pizzi made 29 appearances but found the net just three times, and by the end of the season, it was clear that Napoli weren’t the long-term fit he might have hoped for.
As a result, he ventured onwards to Perugia in 1996, a club that had yo-yoed between Serie A and B more often than a weary supporter’s emotions. Yet his time there was short-lived, and by 1997, he had switched allegiances again, this time joining Genoa. While he did contribute three goals during his brief stint with the Grifone, it was becoming evident that Pizzi’s career had entered its journeyman phase.
Consequently, the late 1990s became a carousel of clubs for Pizzi – from Cremonese to Treviso, from Cittadella to Reggiana – and while his name rarely featured in bold print, he was still turning out week after week, putting in solid performances and scoring the odd goal, like a dependable actor in a long-running theatre production who never got top billing but was always there when the curtain rose.
In particular, his later years included spells with San Marino Calcio and Forlì before he finally hung up his boots in 2005, having navigated the trials of Italian football with a mixture of both resilience and adaptability.