Lazio have the fortune to have had some legendary goalkeepers: Bob Lovati, Ezio Sclavi, Idilio Cei, Lucidio Sentimenti IV, and more recently Angelo Peruzzi and Luca Marchegiani. But with all the due respect for all of these legends, Felice Pulici stands out as probably the best keeper the Biancocelesti have ever had.
Felice Mosè Pulici was born in Soviaco near Milan on December 22, 1945. He first started playing in the local parish until Lecco asked him to join their youth teams. He went through all of the various levels and debuted in Serie B on September 17, 1967 in Genoa Lecco. That season he made three appearances and the next one he signed for Novara in Serie C. He stayed there for four seasons, the first two in the third tier and the other couple in Serie B. In the latter two, he played all of the games.
In his first encounter with Lazio, the Biancocelesti gracefully allowed him to pick up five goals from the back of the net. But in the return match his saves allowed Novara to beat Lazio 1-0.
In 1973 he moved to Rome. The fans were rather puzzled since when they had seen him he had not made such a good impression. Furthermore, he came to substitute Claudio Bandoni, one of the heroes of the swift return to Serie A. But this was Tommaso Maestrelli’s will and so be it.
After the pre-season training he went to live in the Parioli area together with Luciano Re Cecconi and Mario Frustalupi. The start of his career with Lazio was terrible. Loss to Napoli, 0-0 at Palermo, loss to Brindisi (Serie B), loss at home to Taranto (Serie B). Lots of criticism, at one point there were rumours that Lazio would sell him in the November transfer window. But he had the unconditional support of the manager, so he stayed. And Lazio started flying. In the entire 1972-73 season Lazio conceded just 16 goals and fought for the scudetto right until the last minute of the match in Naples.
At half time Lazio were drawing at Napoli and had a potential 44 points, Milan were losing at Verona and had 44 points, Juventus were losing against Roma and were on 43 points. But Napoli fought as if their lives depended on a win and beat Lazio in the final minutes, Juventus overturned the match, after the Roma players basically stopped playing, and Milan collapsed. Lazio came third. The feeling was that the ship of glory had set sail leaving Lazio behind and would not be coming back.
The 1973-74 season was a triumph. Pulici was a very solid goalkeeper and always did the right thing at the right time, giving his defence team mates a lot of tranquillity. Mind you, Giancarlo Oddi and Pino Wilson were probably the best Serie A defensive duo. On May 12, 1974, Lazio beat Foggia with a Giorgio Chinaglia penalty and won the scudetto. But Pulici was not present that evening for the celebrations. He went home because that same day his second child Gabriele Pulici was born. He thought he would have been chosen to go to the World Cup, but Luciano Castellini was preferred. He obviously could not compete with legends Dino Zoff and Enrico Albertosi, but he thought he had a chance, at least as third keeper.
The 1974-75 season was going decently. Lazio were not the unstoppable team they had been the previous years, but despite two derbies losses, after 24 games they were third together with Roma, two points off Napoli second, and four from leaders Juventus. Then however came the announcement: Maestrelli had cancer. The Biancocelesti collapsed 5-1 at home against Torino. Wilson in his biography wrote that at a certain point he asked Oddo “how many have they scored, 4?”, “No Captain, it's five”. The players were like zombies on the field. In the end they came fourth, but they knew things were never going to be the same again.
President Umberto Lenzini was forced to change managers and chose Giulio Corsini. The new head coach decided he was going to change the team, so off went Oddi and Frustalupi. Furthermore, he wanted to fight Chinaglia to death. He did not last long and after seven matches he was sacked. Back came Maestrelli, apparently completely recovered. The Biancocelesti were in deep trouble most of the season but thanks to a 4-0 win against Milan in the last home game of the season and a draw at Como despite being 0-2 down after just 15 minutes, Serie B was avoided. Earlier, in April, Chinaglia had left to join New York Cosmos.
For the next season Luis Vinicio was the new manager. Homegrown Bruno Giordano, who had been one of the protagonists the previous season, Andrea Agostinelli and Lionello Manfredonia, together with some of the scudetto heroes plus some quality and experienced players, allowed Lazio to reach an unexpected UEFA Cup qualification. But that season was marred by tragedy. Maestrelli got worse and the week before the derby, the team had been to see him and they knew his time was up.
On Sunday in the derby Giordano scored and then the team just stopped to watch as the Roma forwards shot from all angles but there was nothing they could do. In an article I found online, the title reads “Felice Pulici and the Derby in which he even stopped the air”. He saved everything possible. He said “I was convinced that Maestrelli was in the stands watching so I wanted to dedicate the win to him”. But the Maestro was not there. In another interview, Pulici said that that day he felt a superhuman strength, as if something was lifting him to heights that were humanly impossible. Four days later Maestrelli died. On January 18, 1977, Luciano Re Cecconi was shot and killed. Pulici was the only one who had the courage to go and see his corpse.
At the beginning of the 1977-78 season, Vinicio told Pulici that Claudio Garella would be the new goalkeeper. He suffered in silence in the beginning but then decided to leave. He preferred to play in Serie B with Monza rather than stay on the bench with a manager who did not rate him.
Monza almost got promoted, missing out on Serie A by just a couple of points. In 1978 he signed for Ascoli in Serie A. Three excellent seasons in which they even qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1979-80. After the 1980-81 season the club decided to choose a younger player so he went back to Lazio for a final season. Initially he was supposed to be number 12, but he was promoted and made 17 appearances. His last game for Lazio was on March 14 1982.
Once he stopped playing he immediately joined the Primavera staff and was even manager when Giancarlo Morrone was promoted to the first team. In the meantime, he got his degree in law.
When Chinaglia became president of the club, Pulici was chosen as General Director. He then stayed at the club in various roles and in 1992 he was responsible for the youth sector as well as being the club’s lawyer. Claudio Lotito made him a member of the general secretariat and when the President was suspended, Pulici had the power of attorney.
In December 2006 he returned to Ascoli as general director and stayed until March 2007. Later on, he was also Federal Secretary of the Italian Sport Federation for the impaired of hearing.
Pulici died on December 16, 2018.
He made 200 appearances for Lazio: 150 in Serie A, 17 in Serie B, 24 in Coppa Italia, 7 in the UEFA Cup and 2 in the Anglo-Italian Cup.
He was a great goalkeeper and a wonderful person. And despite the fact that he did not grow up in Rome, he was in love with Lazio.
“Lazio gets inside you, it captures you, it chooses you”, he used to say.
Grazie Felice.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games | Serie A | Serie B | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup | Anglo Italian Cup |
1972-73 | 36 | 30 | - | 4 | - | 2 |
1973-74 | 39 | 30 | - | 5 | 4 | - |
1974-75 | 34 | 30 | - | 4 | - | - |
1975-76 | 42 | 30 | - | 9 | 3 | - |
1976-77 | 34 | 30 | - | 4 | - | - |
1977-78 | 2 | - | - | 2 | - | - |
1981-82 | 17 | - | 17 | - | - | - |
Total | 200 | 150 | 17 | 24 | 7 | 2 |
Sources