As a rule of thumb, retirements are more interesting than debuts – famous veterans step down. At the end of 1978-79 season it was Gianni Rivera. Once upon a time – in 1959-60 – barely 16-years old debuted for Alessandria. It was sensational start: the teenager almost immediately became a starter and played 26 matches in his first season, scoring 6 goals as well.
Alessandria was better known club then than now, but it was a small club. It was easier to get starting position in a struggling team without stars – Rivera may have been lucky, but his debut was more than noticeable nevertheless. The ‘Golden boy’ of Italian football was born. As for Gianni – he was born in 1943.
Rivera in his first season – and his only season for other club but Milan. He was bought for a record fee of $200 000 – a testimony of his talent. Milan had the cash and also plans for a teenage genius: to replace aging star Juan Schiaffino. Not right away, but in the future. However, the talent of the new boy was so great, he became a starter immediately – an attacking midfielder or offensive playmaker, a rather mixed definition, but eventually putting him against another youngster back than: Sandro Mazzola. A quick jump forward: both Mazzola and Rivera became superstars, definitive players of the 1960s, extremely successful, key players for both clubs and country. It was difficult to play them together in the national team, for they had the same position, yet both accumulated impressive number of caps for Italy. Rivera, however, became and remained the Golden boy of Italian football, part of the international success of Italian football in the 1960s, scoring goals, which was not easy at the pinnacle of cattenachio and playing for perhaps more defensively oriented team than the originator of the dreadful defensive tactic.
This photo from the early 1970s speaks volumes of football history: Nereo Rocco, Gianni Rivera, and Trapattoni. Born to win and knowing how. Rivera shined in ultimately defensive, tough, and hardly attractive team devised and run with iron hand by Nereo Rocco. As for young ‘Trap’ – he had the luxury to learn coaching craft from a grand master and having at hand a genius player. As for Rivera – he was and is so well known, the best would be to just give numbers.
He played for Milan from 1960 to 1979 – so long, that often his first club is even not coming to mind. A one-club man, something fans adore and remember – a Milan legend in the true sense. He played 501 games for his club and scored 122 – that is official Italian championship games. When all other matches are added… the number perhaps cannot be even established correctly. With Milan he won 3 Italian titles – 1962, 1968, and 1979; 4 Cups – 1967, 1972, 1973, and 1977; 2 European Champions Cups – 1963 and 1969; 2 Cup Winners Cups – 1968 and 1973; and 1 Intercontinental Cup – 1969. He was also once the top scorer of Serie A – in 1973, although he shared the honor with two other players (Guiseppe Savoldi and Paulino Pulicci). He captained Milan from 1966 to 1975 and again from 1976 to his retirement in 1979.
For Italy he played 60 matches, in which he scored 14 goals between 1962 and 1974. After the awful Italian performance at the 1974 World Cup finals Rivera was no longer called to the national team – which in a way makes his stats even more impressive: Rivera not only accumulated so many largely during the 1960s, when national teams did not play many games, but also against the odds, for he had great rival – Sandro Mazzola. With Italy, Rivera played a 4 World Cup finals – 1962, 1966, 1970, and 1974. And he won the European Championship in 1968 – unfortunately, he missed the final because of injury. And he was voted European player of the year in 1969.
There was another side of him as well: the love of the game and his gentleman approach to it lead him to… banishment. In the 1970s he spoke against Italian referees and was punished for that. He also refused to move across the Atlantic and join the lucrative NASL – Rivera was entirely against going to the weird league and made fun of it. So, he played for Milan to the end, finishing his illustrious career at 36, but at high note: as a champion of Italy.
After retirement, he became vice-president of Milan and stayed at this post until 1986 when Silvio Berlusconi bought the club. After 1986 Rivers turned to politics and was elected in the Italian Parliament. Much later – to the Eurpean Union Parliament too. But it is not his political life remembered and cherished by people: Rivera became a football legend long time ago and remain exactly that not only in Italy. One of the all-time greatest players.
Stepping down – graceful exit, waiving at the fans. Nothing is forever, except memory – the Golden boy remains after 20 years delighting fans on the pitch.