Renato Zaccarelli
- Dag Jenkins
- May 1
- 3 min read
Renato Zaccarelli was born in Ancona, on January 18, 1951.
He started playing football with Junior Ancona and at 15 moved to Turin and joined the Torino youth setup.
In 1968-69 he was loaned out to Catania in Serie B. He only played 2 league games under Egizio Rubio and the Rossoblu finished 15th. One of his teammates was Lazio connection Paolo Carosi (1958-62, 1963-68 as player and 1983-84 as manager).
In 1969 he went back to Torino but over the next two seasons made only 1 appearance in the Mitropa Cup. In 1970-71 the Granata won the Coppa Italia.
In 1971 he joined Novara on loan for two seasons. The Azzurri were in Serie B and Zaccarelli played more regularly, making 52 league appearances with 1 goal and 4 games in Coppa Italia. His managers for both seasons was former Lazio, Carlo Parola and the Gaudenziani finished 13th and 9th. In his first season his teammates included future Lazio goalkeeper and legend Felice Pulici.
In 1973-74 he moved up to Serie A when he joined Verona on loan. He played 30 league games with 5 goals plus 3 games in Coppa Italia. The Gialloblu ended up 16th and relegated under Giancarlo Cadè.
In the summer of 1974 he finally went back to Torino for good. He stayed thirteen seasons. He made another 414 appearances (318 in A) with 21 goals (17 in A). After an initial 6th place, in 1975-76 Toro won the Scudetto under Gigi Radice. In the following seasons Toro finished 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 3rd, 9th, 9th, 8th, 5th, 2nd, 4th and 9th. They also reached three Coppa Italia finals (1980, 1981, 1982) but lost them all (two to Roma and one to Inter). His managers were Edmondo Fabbri (1974-75), Radice (1975-80, 1984-87), Ercole Rabitti and Romano Cazzaniga (1980-81), Massimo Giacomini (1981-82) and Eugenio Bersellini (1982-84). He played alongside several Torino greats such as Luciano Castellini, Giorgio Ferrini, Luigi Danova, Eraldo Pecci, Claudio and Patrizio Sala, Beppe Dossena, Leo Junior, Francesco "Ciccio" Graziani and Paolino Pulici.
He was also in squads with Lazio connections: Vincenzo D'Amico (Lazio, 1971-80, 1981-86), Giuseppe Greco (1980-81), Roberto Galbiati (1985-86), Domenico Caso (1985-88), Giancarlo Camolese (1986-88), Giuliano Terraneo (1986-87), Paolo Beruatto (1986-87), Vincenzo Esposito (1986-88), Silvano Martina (1987-89), Claudio Sclosa (1988-94), Roberto Cravero (1992-95), Diego Fuser (1992-98) and Roberto Rambaudi (1994-98).
Zaccarelli then retired at 36.
He earned 25 caps for Italy and scored 2 goals (Finland, France). He took part in the World Cup in Argentina where Italy finished 4th and scored on their winning debut against France.
After retiring he had some coaching experiences with Italy B and as assistant manager with the U-21s. In 2002-2003 he took over briefly at Torino in A for the 7th fixture and then between the 23rd and 27th (Toro ended up relegated). In 2005 he was again called up by Torino in Serie B for the last two league games and playoffs (Toro won promotion but went bust and stayed in B under the new ownership of Urbano Cairo).
He has also worked as sporting director and team manager with Torino and as sporting director for Alessandria and Bologna. He has also worked in punditry for Sky Italia.
Zaccarelli was a midfielder who late in his career also played as libero in defence. He was 1.80 for 70 kilos and was an athletic but classy player. He was a reliable, consistent and elegant player who played head high with good tactical sense and vision. As mentioned he moved further back late on and even won the award for best Serie A player for the 1985-86 season (Guerin d'oro).
At Torino "Zac" is a legend. He played 415 games (3rd all time) and won the Scudetto in 1976. He was also captain for six seasons (1981-87).
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