A history of Lazio players at the World Cup 1990-2006

The editions between 1990 to 2006 saw a massive increase in Lazio players present in the World Cup basically due to the higher number of foreign players in Serie A and an improved quality of the Italian contingent.

Italy 1990

Source Wikipedia

Finally, for the first time since 1978 there were two Lazio players present: Ruben Sosa and Pedro Troglio. Sosa was Lazio’s most important star and played for Uruguay who came out as one of the best third placed teams reaching the Round of 16 where they were eliminated by Italy. Ruben made appearances in all four games, as did Nelson Gutiérrez who had played for Lazio in the 1988-89 season (25 appearances, 1 goal) and had played with Verona that season.

Pedro Troglio had arrived at Lazio in 1989 and in this edition of the World Cup he was Lazio’s first Runner Up. Argentina were another of the best ranked third place teams and managed to reach the final which they lost to West Germany. Troglio made 6 appearances including the semi-final and final. In the Argentina squad there was also Nestor Sensini (who arrived in 1999, 39 appearances and 2 goals, and was with Udinese) and Gustavo Abel Dezotti who had played for Lazio in 1988-89 (38 appearances, 9 goals). Sensini played the first and last game for the Celeste and Dezotti made three appearances and was sent off in the dying minutes of the final.

The winners of the World Cup, West Germany, had Karl-Heinz Riedle with them who had just signed for Lazio. He made four appearances coming from the bench, including the semi-final against England. This was the edition which saw Paul Gascoigne as a rising star of European football. Gazza shone and made six appearances.

Two more future Lazio players were present: Roberto Mancini (Italy), even though never taken into consideration by Azeglio Vicini, and Aron Winter (Netherlands) who played the round of 16 match against West Germany.

USA 1994

Source Wikipedia

For this World Cup Italian head coach Arrigo Sacchi called up three Lazio players: Beppe Signori, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Luca Marchegiani. Signori, despite being leading top scorer, had to play at midfield. Why? Because Sacchi preferred to have Roberto Baggio plus Daniele Massaro or Casiraghi up front but he also needed Signori in some way or form, so he put him on the left of the four midfield players.

This problem hindered Signori’s Nazionale career which could have given him more prestige and goals. The problem came to a head in the USA '94 World Cup. In the second game against Norway, Italy were down to ten men due to goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca being sent off. Baggio was taken off the field to let Marchegiani come in and it was up to Beppe Signori to play both at midfield and in attack. Italy had lost the first game to Ireland so were desperate for a win. Signori played a magnificent game and the Azzurri won thanks to his assist for future Lazio Dino Baggio’s goal.

Beppe at this point asked Sacchi if he could play further forward. The answer was no. Signori obeyed but after the game against Nigeria he called it a day. Either in attack or nothing. Sacchi as a consequence left him out in the quarter final against Spain (even though he did come on in the second half and provided the assist for Baggio’s goal) and the semi-final against Bulgaria (he came on with 20 minutes to go). For the final Sacchi asked Beppe if he wanted to play in midfield again, but he refused. Signori did not play the final and Italy lost on penalties.

Marchegiani played the three games that Pagliuca was out. He did really well but Sacchi then moved him back to the bench. Casiraghi made three appearances. In that Italian squad, apart from Dino Baggio, there were also Mauro Tassotti, at Lazio from the youth teams to 1980 (two appearances at the World Cup) and Demetrio Albertini with seven appearances (came to Rome in 2003 for one season).

Aron Winter was also called up and by now he was a Lazio player. He made three appearances and scored a goal in the quarter final in which the Netherlands lost 3-2 to Brazil.

Another five future or past Laziali were present: Kennet Andersson (played a couple of games for Lazio in 1999) who with Sweden reached the semi-final beaten by Brazil, with seven appearances and five goals; Karl-Heinz Riedle made two appearances and scored one goal as Germany were eliminated by Bulgaria in the quarter finals; and there were three Argentinians, Jose Antonio Chamot, soon to arrive in Biancoceleste, Sensini and Diego Pablo Simeone. Chamot and Simeone made four appearances, Sensini three.

Brazil won the Cup beating Italy on penalties. Sacchi had decided to play Roberto Baggio despite him not being 100% fit and it was Baggio who missed the decisive penalty. If Signori had played up front, it may have been a different story …

France 1998

Source Wikipedia

The French World Cup saw the highest number of Lazio players participating, current, past or future: 23 of which four played for Lazio at the time (Alessandro Nesta, Vladimir Jugovic, Chamot and Matias Almeyda)

The Italian contingent had seven representatives: Alessandro Nesta, Albertini, Dino Baggio, Luigi Di Biagio, Roberto Di Matteo, Christian Vieri and Enrico Chiesa. Nesta managed to make three appearances before suffering a serious injury which would take him out of the competition and the first three months of Serie A; Albertini made 4 appearances, Dino Baggio 5; Luigi Di Biagio, who had played for Lazio in the youth teams and debuted in Serie A, played all five of Italy’s game but alas was the culprit in missing the decisive penalty in the France-Italy quarter final penalty shoot-out; Roberto Di Matteo, who played in Rome from 1993 to 1996 before moving to Chelsea, made two appearances as did Chiesa, who joined Lazio in 2002 for one season. The Italy star was Vieri who played all of the games and scored five goals. He arrived in Rome after this World Cup. Italy were eliminated by France in the quarter finals.

Argentina were also full of Lazio players: Chamot (four appearances) and Almeyda (5) had just won the Coppa Italia with the Biancocelesti, Sensini (3 appearances, who was playing for Parma) in his third World Cup, Simeone (5, Inter), Juan Sebastian Veron (5, Sampdoria), Claudio Lopez (5 appearances and one goal, Valencia) and Hernan Crespo (1, Parma). They lost to the Netherlands in the quarter finals. In the Dutch squad there was still Winter (4 appearances) and Japp Stam (7 appearances) who would arrive three years later.

The Yugoslavia contingent had four Lazio connections: Jugovic (played four), who had also just won the Coppa Italia and would leave shortly for Atletico Madrid, Sinisa Mihajlovic (4 with one goal), who would arrive in the summer and was playing for Sampdoria, Dejan Stankovic (3) who also would arrive some weeks later, and Darko Kovacevic (2) who came for a few months in 2001 and was playing for Real Sociedad. Yugoslavia were beaten in the Round of 16 by the Netherlands.

Two more Lazio connections at this World Cup. Michael Laudrup returned for Denmark after a few years of not playing for the National team. He played five and scored one goal. The Danes were eliminated in the quarter finals by Brazil. Also, there was Mark Fish with South Africa who played three games. Fish had played for Lazio in 1996-97 and he was currently at Bolton. The Bafana Bafana were eliminated in the Group stage.

France beat Brazil in the final to win their first World Cup.

South Korea & Japan 2002

Source Wikipedia

For this first Asian edition of the World Cup the Lazio contingent was the highest to date. Six players: Alessandro Nesta, Fernando Couto, Claudio Lopez, Diego Simeone, Hernan Crespo and Gaizka Mendieta.

Nesta played three games for Italy and in the squad there were also Di Biagio (one appearance) and Vieri (4 with three goals). The Azzurri were eliminated very controversially by South Korea in the Round of 16. In the Italy group there was also Alen Boksic who played three games for Croatia but they were eliminated. Anthony Seric, who came to Lazio in 2004 and was at Verona, was present but did not play.

Argentina had the largest number of Lazio connections. Lopez and Crespo made three appearances, Simeone two and there were also Juan Pablo Sorin, who would play six months for Lazio starting from the summer (3), Veron (3), Chamot and Almeyda (1). It was a disastrous campaign for Argentina who were eliminated in the group stage.

Couto was joined by former Lazio Sergio Conceição in the Portugal squad. They played all three games but they too went out in the Group Stage.

Mendieta, who had had a terrible year at Lazio, made three appearances and scored one goal. Spain were eliminated in the quarter finals by South Korea, very controversially.

Two more future Lazio connections were present. Djibril Cissé for France and Miro Klose for Germany. They would both play together at Lazio, though briefly, in 2011. Cissé came on as sub three times in an awful campaign for France as they were eliminated in the Group stage. Klose managed to reach the final, played all seven of the games and scored 5 goals including a hat-trick against Saudi Arabia.

In the final Brazil defeat the Germans 2-0 with a Ronaldo brace.

Germany 2006

Source Wikipedia

72 years after Anfilogino Guarisi and 68 from Silvio Piola, Lazio finally had two more World Champions: Massimo Oddo and Angelo Peruzzi.

Italy arrived for the World Cup amid the whirlwind of turmoil following the scandal of Calciopoli. Nobody would have betted on the Azzurri to win, even if they did have a squad full of stars. Nesta was there, though no longer a Lazio player, and he was supposed to play all the games. He was in the first eleven for the first three but against the Czech Republic he got injured and was out for the rest of the competition.

On the eve of the 2006 World Cup, it looked as if Oddo was going to be the first choice right back for Italy. But for the first few games Cristian Zaccardo was chosen instead (a strange coincidence was that just before the World Cup, Zaccardo changed agent and chose Italy manager Marcello Lippi’s son as his new representative) and then Gianluca Zambrotta was moved to right back and Fabio Grosso came in as left back. Oddo however came on as substitute in the quarterfinal game against Ukraine. Interestingly enough Oddo played 10 out 12 Euro 2008 games after that Italian win …

Peruzzi was chosen as third keeper and as a consequence never played. Italy beat France in the final after the penalty shootout.

Also present at the World Cup and as a Lazio player was Valon Behrami for Switzerland. He had joined Lazio that season, and would go on to play another two more seasons. He played just two minutes in the competition as the Swiss lost in the round of 16 to Ukraine on penalties.

As usual there was a large contingent of Lazio connections in the Argentine squad. Sorin (4 appearances), Crespo (4 with 3 goals), Julio Cruz (at Inter, he would join Lazio three years later for a season and he made two appearances) and Lionel Scaloni, current head coach for Argentina. Scaloni joined Lazio in 2007 and stayed under contract with Lazio until January 2013. He made one appearance. Argentina reached the quarter finals where they lost to Germany on penalties.

Germany obviously had Klose in their ranks. The Goal Fisher played seven games and scored five goals as Germany after being eliminated by Italy in the semis, won the third place final against Portugal. In that match there was also Thomas Hitzlsperger who played briefly for Lazio in 2010.

There were more Lazio connections in this edition. The Czech Republic, eliminated in the group stage, had three: Pavel Nedved (at Lazio from 1996 to 2001), Karel Poborsky (2001-2002) and David Rozehnal (2008-2009). They all played three games. Stankovic and Dusan Basta (2014-2019) were also present for Serbia. Dejan played three games, Basta never made it onto the pitch. Serbia were also eliminated in their group phase.

Four more players: Mark Bresciano (at Lazio for a season in 2010), Seric, Pepe Reina (2020-2022) and Louis Saha (2012). Bresciano led Australia to the round of 16 where they were beaten by Italy and he made four appearances. Seric (Croatia, eliminated in the Group phase) and Reina (Spain, lost to France in the Round of 16) did not play, whilst Saha (France) made three brief appearances.