Luca Marchegiani is one of the Lazio heroes of the 2000 scudetto.
Born in Ancona on February 22 1966, he started his career in the youth teams of Jesi where he made his professional debut in C2 in 1986-87. The following year he signed for Brescia but played just one game in Serie B. In September 1988 he moved to Turin to play for Torino.
Thanks to the advice of Lido Vieri, father of Christian and expert goalkeeper, he improved his technical abilities and started playing regularly. He played four years at Torino, winning a Serie B Championship in 1989-90, a Mitropa Cup in 1991 and a Coppa Italia in 1992-93 beating Roma in the final. The 1991-92 season was his best as he was voted best goalkeeper in Serie A.
In 1993 he joined Lazio. He played for ten years and was one of the players that contributed to the best team Lazio has ever had. He was a goalkeeper that would save everything that could be stopped. He did not have the explosiveness and power of Angelo Peruzzi who could even save the impossible, but if it was within human reach, he got there. He did make the occasional mistake and there were always a couple of blunders each year, but “Il Conte” (The Count as he was called), was always very reliable.
In his first seven years of Lazio he was one of the best goalkeepers in Italy. After the Lazio scudetto, President Sergio Cragnotti had the opportunity of signing Peruzzi and Marchegiani became Lazio’s second keeper. Peruzzi was prone to injury so Lazio needed a goalkeeper that could step up and be an excellent replacement. He was not overjoyed at being on the bench and after three years as deputy he left Rome and joined Chievo Verona. He stayed there two years before retiring.
He played 339 games for Lazio, 243 in Serie A, 37 in Coppa Italia, 15 in Champions League, 8 in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, 34 in the UEFA Cup, two Super Coppa finals and once the UEFA Super Cup. He won a scudetto, the Coppa Italia twice, the Italian SuperCoppa twice, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup and a UEFA Super Cup.
Marchegiani also played nine times for the Nazionale. He should have played more. In the World Cup of 1994, he substituted Gianluca Pagliuca for three games. Pagliuca had been sent off in Italy’s second match against Norway and was suspended for two games. Manager Arrigo Sacchi could have kept Marchegiani on since he was doing so well, but he didn’t. Italy was runner up at USA 94.
Once he stopped playing he was immediately signed by Sky to do punditry. The Lazio fans have never been particularly happy with Marchegiani’s commentaries, always very negative when it comes to speaking about Lazio.
But we cannot forget how important he was and how much he gave to Lazio and for this we will always be very grateful.
Lazio career
Season | Total games | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Cup Winners Cup | UEFA Cup | Super Coppa | UEFA Super Cup |
1993-94 | 40 | 34 | 2 | - | - | 4 | - | - |
1994-95 | 47 | 32 | 7 | - | - | 8 | - | - |
1995-96 | 31 | 26 | 2 | - | - | 3 | - | - |
1996-97 | 40 | 32 | 4 | - | - | 4 | - | - |
1997-98 | 51 | 33 | 8 | - | - | 10 | - | - |
1998-99 | 48 | 34 | 5 | - | 8 | - | 1 | - |
1999-00 | 39 | 28 | - | 10 | - | - | - | 1 |
2000-01 | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | - | - | - | - |
2001-02 | 11 | 9 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
2002-03 | 14 | 6 | 3 | - | - | 5 | - | - |
Total | 338 | 242 | 37 | 15 | 8 | 34 | 1 | 1 |
Sources