Nicknamed Vecio (standard Italian vecchio, 'old man'),[4] Bearzot coached the Italy national team the most (104 times, between September 1975 to June 1986).[5] He was noted for his phlegmatic personality and pipe smoking.[6]
A year after his death, an award was named in honour of the 1982 World Cup winning coach, the "Enzo Bearzot Award", for the best Italian coach of the year.[7]
Enzo Bearzot made his debut in professional football with Pro Gorizia in 1946, a team he left in 1948 to join Internazionale.
After three seasons with the Nerazzurri, Bearzot moved to Sicily and joined Catania for three more seasons.
In 1954, he moved to Torino, which was rebuilding after the tragedy of Superga in 1949. In two seasons as a starter he played 65 matches, scoring one goal. In 1956 he returned to Internazionale where he appeared 27 times, the last of which was a 3–2 defeat at Bologna on 9 June 1957. The following year he returned to Torino. Here, he made 164 appearances and scored 7 goals for the Granata before retiring in 1964, aged 37, to take up coaching.
In his playing career, Bearzot totalled 251 appearances in Italy's Serie A, being called up once to play for Italy, making his debut on 27 November 1955 in a 2–0 1955–56 Central European International Cup match defeat to Hungary.[9]
After having ended his playing career, Bearzot became assistant coach of Torino, working alongside Italian managers Nereo Rocco and Giovan Battista Fabbri. He successively moved in Tuscany to take his first head coaching job in Tuscany at the helm of Serie C side Prato.
In the 1982 FIFA World Cup, after poor performances in the three first matches, Bearzot announced the so-called silenzio stampa (press silence) in order to avoid rising criticism from the Italian press. Following that, the Italian team finally started to play its best football, defeating Argentina and Brazil (see Italy v Brazil (1982 FIFA World Cup)) in the second round, Poland in the semi-final and Germany in the Final, and winning the World Cup for the first time since 1938.[10]
Italy did not qualify for the Euro 1984.[10] Bearzot resigned after the 1986 FIFA World Cup, which saw Italy being defeated in the round of 16 by France.[10] Bearzot was criticised during the latter tournament for relying too heavily on players from the 1982 team, as some of them were past their best form by 1986.[10]
After a long period of inactivity, Bearzot was appointed President of the FIGC Technical Sector (Settore Tecnico, the main football coaching organization of Italy) in 2002. He left this office in 2005.
Bearzot was highly regarded for his tactical prowess, meticulousness, and versatility as a manager. He often studied his opponents in great detail before matches, in order to plan out and prepare his team's strategy; he was also known for his ability to adopt different tactics, formations, and playing styles, depending on the style of play of the opposition, and for having the capacity to find a system which best suited his players. At the same time, he preferred not to impose set plays and tactical plans on his players, as he believed that above all, they should have the freedom to express their ability and individual talent. At the 1978 World Cup, his Italian side often adopted an attractive, offensive-minded possession game based on passing, creativity, movement, attacking flair, and technique, due to the individual skill of his players; the front three – made up of centre-forward Paolo Rossi, and wingers Roberto Bettega and Franco Causio – would also often change positions with one another, in order to disorient the opposing defenders.
Bearzot (right) with Argentine former player Omar Sívori during an interview in 1980
In Italy's second round match against Brazil, Bearzot further demonstrated his tactical astuteness by changing Italy's formation in order to contain the Brazilian midfield and prevent them from dominating the match with their possession game. In the final against Germany, due to an injury to playmaker Antognoni in midfield, he also altered Italy's formation to a 5–2–3, by instead fielding Claudio Gentile as an additional man-marking centre-back, who would help left wing-back Antonio Cabrini to cover Germany's winger, Pierre Littbarski, while Cabrini would mark Germany's attacking right back, Manfred Kaltz; Italy's other two man-marking centre-backs, Fulvio Collovati and Giuseppe Bergomi, were dealt with the task of marking wing forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and centre-forward Klaus Fischer respectively, while the sweeper, Scirea, was given the freedom to help double mark forwards, advance into midfield in order to win the ball and start attacking plays, or get forward. Due to the versatility of his players and their tendency to switch positions throughout matches, Bearzot's side were known for their ability to exploit spaces in the opposition; his team's defensive strength was demonstrated by his players' ability to cover for each other and anticipate their opponents in order to win back the ball. His side were also highly adept at subsequently creating goalscoring opportunities from quick and highly organised counterattacks after winning back possession, as well as being capable of keeping the ball and circulating possession in order to conserve energy.
In addition to his skills as a tactician, Bearzot was also known for having a close relationship with his individual players, as well as for his ability to motivate them, create a united team environment, and foster a winning mentality.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] In his obituary for Bearzot in The Guardian following the manager's death in 2010, Brian Glanville noted that "...Enzo Bearzot ... revitalised the national side. He imposed a far more flexible, adventurous style of play and led the team to victory at the World Cup in Spain in 1982."[15]
