Italian soccer and Naples mourn Antonio Juliano

Goodbye to Antonio Juliano

All Italian soccer and especially Napoli, of which è was a flag, mourn Antonio Juliano: the great former Azzurri midfielder, as well as captain and manager of the Neapolitan club, passed away Wednesday. He was hospitalized and was coping with a bad illness. He would have turned 81 in a couple of weeks.

Militò in Naples from 1961 to 1978 for 17 seasons, including 12 as captain, and remaining for a long time the Azzurri footballer with the most appearances in all competitions; with the partenopei he won two Italian Cups (1961-62 and 1975-76), a Coppa delle Alpi (1966) and an Italian-English League Cup (1976). With the national team he graduated as European champion in 1968 and vice world champion in 1970.

Having hung up his boots, Juliano turned out to be very important in the history of Napoli also as a manager: he curated the purchase of Ruud Krol and the market session that led to the signing of Diego Armando Maradona from Barcelona in 1984. After retiring è he was also a TV pundit for many years.