Umberto Pinardi was born on May 22 1928 in Parma.
He started playing football with Scarioni and in 1947 he signed for Gallaratese in the A group of Serie B. But the club were relegated at the end of the season. In 1948 he played in Serie C and the following year he signed for Como in Serie A, debuting in the first tier on October 16 in the match against Genoa. He played three years for Como and in 1952 moved to Juventus. He did not play very much, just 12 appearances, and in 1954 he signed for Udinese. It was an exceptional year for the Bianconeri who reached second place but were then relegated following an attempt to bribe some Pro Patria players two years earlier. Despite having to play in Serie B he stayed, contributing to their prompt return to Serie A.
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In 1956 he signed for Lazio. In his first two seasons he played regularly  but in his third he was not in the first eleven and rarely played. With Lazio he won the 1958 Coppa Italia, the first silverware for the Biancocelesti, playing all the tournament games except one.
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In 1959 he returned to Udine and then played one final year at Como in the 1960-61 season.
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Once he stopped playing, he had a very lengthy career as manager. He began with Massese and stayed two years. With Pisa in 1964-65 he got promoted to Serie B and managed to avoid relegation the year after. In 1967 he returned to Udine but despite the fact that the Bianconeri were second in Serie C, he was fired.
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He then returned to Massese for a year, another season at Terni and then two more years again with Massese before his great Serie A chance as manager of Palermo for the 1972-73 season in Serie A. Unfortunately, he was sacked midway due to an awful start of the second half of the season. He then was head coach for Brescia, Spal, Modena, Taranto and Cavese.
At Lazio he played as centre-back, what today you could define as libero. He was a good man-to-man marker and extremely reliable. As a manager he expected full commitment from the players, and this often did not make him particularly popular.
He made 69 appearances for Lazio with one goal.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia |
1956-57 | 29 | 29 | - |
1957-58 | 35 (1) | 30 (1) | 5 |
1958-59 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
Total | 69 (1) | 61 (1) | 8 |
Sources