Giancarlo Oddi is one of the heroes of the Lazio scudetto. For a number of years he was considered among the best Italian defenders. Expert in man to man marking despite the fact that he was one of those rare defenders who could play easily with both feet, he never really had to participate in the building of the game, so all he needed to think about was to annihilate the opposition’s centre forward. He did that exceptionally well throughout his career.
Born in Rome on July 23, 1948, he started playing for Lazio’s Primavera team in 1967 and in his first year he won the De Martino Championship (a tournament for the Serie A teams’ reserves) and played one game in Serie B.
Due to the fact that his family needed him to work, he asked to be loaned so that he could play and Lazio sent him to Sora in Serie D. He came back for a year, played three games in Serie A and was loaned again in 1970. He played a year for Massese in Serie B.
Back for a third time, in 1971-72 Manager Tommaso Maestrelli was impressed but decided to use the youngster for just 10 games so that he could acquire experience. The Biancocelesti were promoted back to Serie A and starting from the 1972-73 season Oddi went on to play 90 consecutive league games for Lazio without ever missing a minute.
After his first season as first choice player all the northern teams wanted to sign him but President Umberto Lenzini refused all offers. He would be one of the protagonists of Lazio’s triumphant 1973-74 season and one of the two Rome-born players of the team (the other being Franco Tripodi who played just 4 minutes in the final game of the season).
The 1974-75 season was marred by the news of Maestrelli being unwell and that would have a deep effect on the team. Lazio finished fourth and Maestrelli could not continue to coach the team.
That would be his last season for Lazio after 93 games in Serie A, 11 in Serie B, 24 in Coppa Italia and 4 in the UEFA Cup. The club decided that it was time to move on and sold Oddi and Mario Frustalupi to Cesena in exchange for Paolo Ammoniaci and Francesco Brignani. A massive mistake, proven by the fact that Cesena managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup that year and Lazio only managed to avoid relegation in the last game.
Oddi stayed for 8 years in Emilia Romagna, 4 in Serie A and 4 in Serie B. In his last professional year he came back to Rome and played in Serie C2 with Lodigiani.
In 1984 he was back at Lazio as Assistant to Paolo Carosi and then to Juan Carlos Lorenzo. When the latter got the sack with the team virtually relegated, he became head coach under the supervision of Roberto Lovati. He was unable to avoid relegation but he certainly could not be blamed, the damage had already been done. He was assistant coach to Gigi Simoni, Eugenio Fascetti, Giuseppe Materazzi and Dino Zoff. When Zdenek Zeman arrived he moved to the Lazio youth sector. He returned to assist Zoff in 2001.
After having coached briefly in China in 2003 he came back to Italy and was manager for Legnano for the 2004-05 season. From 2006 he became assistant coach to Giuseppe Papadopulo first at Palermo in 2006, then Lecce (2006-08), where he won a promotion to Serie A in 2008, then Bologna in 2009 and finally very briefly at Torino in 2011.
After that experience he continued to be manager of lower level teams in the Lazio area. In 2016 he had a brief experience in Romania. His last job was as head coach of Lanciano in 2020.
Giancarlo Oddi also has done a lot of punditry for local Rome radio stations that talk about Lazio and still does today.
Oddi, like all of the Lazio legendary 1973-74 team, will forever be a Lazio hero.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances | Serie A | Serie B | Coppa Italia | UEFA Cup | Anglo-Italian Cup | Cup of the Alps |
1967-68 | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - | - |
1969-70 | 6 | 3 | - | - | - | 2 | 1 |
1971-72 | 18 | - | 10 | 8 | - | ​ | ​ |
1972-73 | 34 | 30 | - | 4 | - | ​ | ​ |
1973-74 | 42 | 30 | - | 8 | 4 | ​ | ​ |
1974-75 | 34 | 30 | - | 4 | - | ​ | ​ |
Total | 135 | 93 | 11 | 24 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
Sources