Domenico Penzo

Domenico Penzo (born 17 October 1953) is an Italian retired professional footballer, who played as a forward.

Early life Penzo was born in Chioggia, Venice, in Veneto; he is one of seven siblings. His father was a fisherman. When he was seven, Penzo moved to Baranzate with his family. After leaving school at the age of 14, he began working as a carpenter, and then as a mechanic at his brother-in-law's auto-repair shop; he initially played football with his friends and for several local teams, before pursuing a professional football career.

Penzo joined Serie B side Verona in 1981; under manager Osvaldo Bagnoli, he became a key player for the club, and scored 14 goals in 31 appearances during the 1981–82 season, helping Verona obtain promotion to Serie A. His best individual season was in the 1982–83 season, when, playing as a lone striker, he scored 15 league goals with Verona to become the second-best scorer of the season in the Serie A, alongside Alessandro Altobelli, and behind only Michel Platini, who scored one more, and won the Capocannoniere title with 16 goals. Penzo was initially intended to be a replacement for the recently departed Roberto Bettega, who had left Juventus to play football in Canada. Penzo immediately won the Serie A title, in what was to be his only season with the club, as his performances did not convince the Juventus management to renew his contract. Although he gelled well with his strike partner Paolo Rossi, his spell with Juventus was less successful than his time at Verona from an individual standpoint; however, he was less consistent and was ultimately unable to replicate his goalscoring form from the previous season with the Turin side, only managing 5 league goals in 25 appearances, and often starting from the bench. Despite his struggles in front of goal in the league throughout the season, he starred for the club in the 1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup, as Juventus also went on to win the competition that season; during the tournament, he achieved a rare feat of scoring 4 goals in the same game, which he managed in a 7–0 first round home win against Lechia Gdańsk on 14 September 1983. In total, he scored 10 goals in 36 appearances across all competitions for Juventus. where he initially played alongside Diego Maradona, although following the arrival of Bruno Giordano, he struggled both to score and break into the starting line-up, and ended his professional career at the end of the season in 1986. he joined Serie C1 side Trento for the 1987–88 season, and officially retired from football in 1988.

In total, Penzo played 6 seasons (122 games, 27 goals) in the Italian Serie A, and made 136 appearances in Serie B, scoring 44 goals.

Honours Juventus Serie A champion: 1983–84. UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winner: 1983–84.