Alberto “Albertino” Bigon started out as a centre forward but later moved to midfield. He was one of Italy’s best attacking midfielders of the 1970s.
Alberto “Albertino” Bigon started out as a centre forward but later moved to midfield. He was one of Italy’s best attacking midfielders of the 1970s.
Bigon was born in Padova on October 31st 1947. He started his career in the youth teams of his home town and won the Primavera championship in the 1965-66 season. He played three seasons with Padova in Serie B before signing for Napoli in 1967. He did not last long in Campania and in November moved to Spal and debuted in Serie A.
In 1969 he signed for Foggia and under future Lazio manager Tommaso Maestrelli won promotion to Serie A in his first year. In his second, after a good first half of the season, Foggia collapsed and were relegated. But he had attracted the attention of AC Milan and signed for the rossoneri in 1971. He became one of their most important players and stayed for nine years. With Milan he won a scudetto in 1978-79, three Coppa Italias (1971-72, 1972-73, 1976-77) and a UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1973. He played 329 games for Milan in all competitions with 90 goals.
He came to Lazio in 1980. President Umberto Lenzini had sold Bruno Giordano to Milan in exchange for Bigon and Stefano Chiodi. Milan had been relegated to Serie B in the first match fixing scandal and Giordano had also been involved (18 month suspension), but Bigon and Chiodi were already in Rome when this happened, so the clubs had a problem. As a consequence Mauro Tassotti was sent to Milan as compensation and the two players stayed on. While they were in pre-season training, Lazio were also relegated, so Bigon found himself in Serie B. Despite the shock he stayed.
He played two seasons for Lazio in Serie B and was a fan favourite. He was one of the protagonists of the 1980-81 season. At two games from the end Lazio, Genoa and Cesena were all second on 44 points. Genoa and Cesena won away, Lazio were struggling against Vicenza. In the 90th minute, the Biancocelesti were awarded a penalty. Chiodi, who had never missed a spot kick in his entire career, kicked the ball out. Lazio stayed in Serie B and the next season struggled all year and only just avoided relegation in Serie C.
Bigon was then sold to Vicenza and played his last two years of football in Serie C.
With Lazio he played 68 times (57 in Serie B, 8 in Coppa Italia) and scored 13 goals (12 in Serie B and one in Coppa Italia).
After he quit football he became a manager and coached Reggina for a year in Serie C1 in 1986 and then two years at Cesena. In 1989 he coached Diego Maradona’s Napoli and won a scudetto and a Super Coppa. After his experience in Naples he was manager of Lecce in Serie B, where he was able to avoid relegation, Udinese in Serie A, again avoiding relegation in a play-off against Brescia, and briefly for Ascoli. In the 1996-97 season he was head coach for Sion in Switzerland and won the double (Championship and Cup). He later returned to Italy to manage Perugia but was fired after 8 games. In 1999 he was in charge of Olympiakos Piraeus but was sacked during the season despite the fact the team was first in the league. He returned to Sion in 2007. His last experience was managing NK IB 1975 Ljubljana but was fired after 5 games. At this point he called it a day and retired.
Despite having only stayed at Lazio briefly he was very fond of the Biancocelesti and Maestrelli, as mentioned in many interviews. “Maestrelli was my manager at Foggia and our families were very close, our children grew up together. He was almost like a father to me”, he said in an interview in 2013. “Despite Chiodi’s missed penalty, I remember it as one of the happiest periods of my life and the fans were just incredible”.
Bigon was a great, classy player and it was a privilege to have seen him play. It was just a pity he arrived at Lazio in their darkest hour.
Lazio career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
1980-81 | 37 (10) | 32 (9) | 5 (1) |
1981-82 | 28 (3) | 25 (3) | 3 |
Total | 65 (13) | 57 (12) | 8 (1) |
Sources
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