Alessandro Orlando

Alessandro Orlando (born 1 June 1970) is an Italian former professional footballer who played a defender.

A quick, talented, energetic, and dynamic offensive left-back, with a powerful shot and good technique, he excelled at providing long passes and crosses to forwards and at making attacking runs down the flank. Despite his offensive and creative prowess, he was inconsistent at times, however, and was less effective defensively, as he often struggled in one on one situations with forwards. A predominantly left-footed player, he was also an accurate free-kick taker.

Although he was often a reserve player at Milan and Juventus, Orlando is one of the six players to win the Serie A title in two successive years with different clubs, winning the 1993–94 Serie A title with Milan, and the 1994–95 Serie A title with Juventus; the other five are Giovanni Ferrari, Riccardo Toros, Eraldo Mancin, Roberto Baggio, and Andrea Pirlo.

Club career

Early career After beginning his career in the Udinese Youth side, Orlando made 3 appearances in the Udinese senior side during the 1987–88 and the 1988–89 Serie B seasons. He was subsequently loaned to Parma, making 13 appearances and scoring a goal, also managing Serie A promotion during the 1989–90 season. Despite his success, his inability to break into the starting line-up yet again led to his transfer to Fiorentina, where he appeared even less frequently than in previous seasons. He made only seven appearances in Serie A with the Florentine club that season, and one more in the Coppa Italia, a trophy which Fiorentina would go on to win.

Return to Udinese and later career Orlando returned to Udinese for the 1996–97 season, where he made 22 appearances, helping the club to a fifth-place finish in Serie A. He was sold to newly promoted club Treviso in Serie B the following season, after making two appearances with Udinese. He spent two seasons with Treviso in Serie B, scoring 5 goals in 50 appearances. In the summer of 2000, he moved to Cagliari, where he only made eight appearances throughout his only season at the club, later moving to Padova in Serie C1. He played two seasons with the club, making 42 appearances, without scoring a goal. He subsequently moved to Pordenone and later Cologna Veneta. In 2004, he was signed by Serie D club Tamai, where he spent three seasons, before spending the final season of his career with Manzanese, where he retired after the 2007–08 season.

Coaching career In 2008, Orlando was hired as a player-manager for A.S.D. Flumiganio, a lower-division team in the Promozione League in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In June 2013, after his fifth season, he left the club. Starting from the 2013–14 season, he was named player-manager of the Friulian Promozione side A.S.D. Svegliano.

Honours

Club Sampdoria Supercoppa Italiana: 1991.

A.C. Milan Serie A: 1993–94. Supercoppa Italiana: 1994. UEFA Champions League: 1993–94.

Juventus Serie A: 1994–95. Coppa Italia: 1994–95.

Fiorentina Coppa Italia: 1995–96.