Salvatore Bagni

Salvatore Bagni (; born 25 September 1956 in Correggio) is an Italian former footballer who mainly played as a central midfielder. He currently works as a sporting director. Bagni played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, in particular Inter, with whom they won a Coppa Italia title, and Napoli, with whom they won a Scudetto-Coppa Italia double. At international level, he represented Italy on 41 occasions, and took part at the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Club career Bagni is the son of a Romagnol footballer and a Sicilian mother from Gela.

He began his career with Serie D club Carpi (1975–77), later playing with Serie A side Perugia (1977–1981) and putting on some encouraging performances, before moving to Italian giants Inter (1981–84), with whom they won the Coppa Italia in 1982, and was considered a potential heir to Gabriele Oriali in midfield.

Bagni is best remembered for his period at Napoli (1984–88), with whom they won a scudetto-Coppa Italia double in 1987, which included the first of two league titles won by Napoli in its history;

He later played for Serie B side Avellino for a season (1988–89) before retiring. In total, he scored 52 goals in Serie A.

Bagni later made 41 appearances for the senior Italy national football team between 1981 and 1987, scoring five goals. Bagni was initially named part of the 40-man preliminary Italian squads for both the 1978 and 1982 FIFA World Cups, even featuring in the unofficial, experimental pre-trounament friendlies, but his negative performances later led him to be excluded from the final squads for both tournaments, in which Italy went on to claim fourth and first-place finishes respectively.

Style of play A generous and hard-working team-player, Bagni was a tenacious, hard-tackling player, with good technique and team spirit, who was usually deployed as central, box-to-box or defensive midfielder throughout most of his career, due to his ability to win back possession and subsequently start attacking plays; his tendency to commit aggressive and reckless challenges, despite his friendly character, earned him the nickname "The Warrior". In addition to his tenacious playing style, he also attracted controversy for his behaviour during his time at Napoli, when he made an offensive gesture in a match against rival club Roma towards the opposition fans, even though the two sets of fans had formed a friendship at the time, thus ruining the relationship between the two clubs. Although he was mainly known for his energetic playing style as a ball-winner in midfield, he was also known for his eye for goal throughout his career, and was even capable of playing in more offensive roles, as a winger and as a forward, positions which he often occupied in his early career, when he first made his break-through in Italian football, due to his attacking attributes.

Honours

Club F.C. Internazionale Milano Coppa Italia: 1981–82

S.S.C. Napoli Serie A: 1986–87 Coppa Italia: 1986–87