Soccer remembers Nicola Pietrangeli

An award for Nicola Pietrangeli

The ‘Enzo Bearzot Award’ crosses the boundaries of its sport and, for the first time. is awarded to an athlete not directly linked to the world of soccer. This morning the FIGC and the US ACLI announced that, in addition to the award for the best coach, a Special Lifetime Achievement Award will also be given to Italian tennis legend Nicola Pietrangeli in this 2023 edition.
The presentation of the prestigious award to the captain of the Italian national team that won the Davis Cup in 1976, as well as king of two editions of Roland Garros and the Internazionali d’Italia, will be held in Naples -at the Sala dei Baroni at the Maschio Angioino- on March 24.
“Nicola is sport,” said FIGC President Gabriele Gravina, “an icon, a heritage of Italian sport. He is not only the man of tennis but transversally belongs to the whole Italian sports family.”

These are the words of Nicola Pietrangeli as soon as he learned the news: “I am honored to receive an award named after Enzo Bearzot,” he said, “a great man of sport and an authentic man. I knew him and I have the memory of a master of values. As far as I am concerned, finally someone has remembered my soccer background, which was not so bad.”

The ‘Enzo Bearzot National Award,’ established in 2011 to honor the memory of the coach of the Italian national team that won the World Cup in 1982 in Spain, is awarded annually to the best Italian coach. Promoted by the ACLI and sponsored by the FIGC, the award is given by a jury composed of representatives of major Italian sports publications. The 2023 award as the best coach will be presented to Luciano Spalletti, coach of the leading team in the Serie A championship.