Attilio Lombardo

Attilio Lombardo (born 6 January 1966) is an Italian retired football player turned manager; he is currently the assistant manager for the Saudi Arabia national football team.

Throughout his career he was usually deployed as a wide midfielder, or as an offensive right winger, although he also played as a fullback or wingback on occasion later in his career.

Lombardo played for several Italian clubs throughout his career, and is best known for his two spells with Sampdoria.

He is one of the six players to have won the Serie A title with three different teams: Sampdoria, Juventus, and Lazio; the other five players to have managed the same feat are Giovanni Ferrari, Filippo Cavalli, Pietro Fanna, Sergio Gori, and Aldo Serena.

Lombardo also had a spell in the Premier League with English side Crystal Palace.

At international level, Lombardo represented the Italy national football team on 19 occasions, although he was never called up for a major tournament.

During his career, he was given the nicknames "Popeye", as he was thought to resemble the cartoon character's appearance due to his own bald head and strong physique, as well as "the Ostrich" (or "Struzzo", in Italian), because of his pace, stamina, and running style.

He was also given the nickname "The Bald Eagle" during his time at Crystal Palace.

Lombardo started his career at Pergocrema, having been promoted from the youth squad, in Italy's Serie C2, in 1983, only 16 years old, before moving up to the Serie B side Cremonese, in 1985, where he made a name for himself, as a more-than-capable right sided winger under the guidance of manager Tarcisio Burgnich.

He was then sent to Serie A side U.C. Sampdoria for a total fee of 4 billion lira.

Playing alongside talented players such as Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini, Pietro Vierchowod, Gianluca Pagliuca, and Ruud Gullit, under manager Vujadin Boskov, Lombardo won several domestic and continental trophies with Sampdoria, such as Serie A, the Coppa Italia, the Italian Super Cup, and the Cup Winners' Cup.

In the 1988–89 season, he picked up medals for the Coppa Italia in 1989, facing a rejuvenated Napoli side with legendary Argentine attacking midfielder Diego Maradona, only to defeat the Partenopei 4–0.

In 1990, he lifted his side to victory in the Cup Winners' Cup, retaining impressive wins against Borussia Dortmund, AS Monaco, and R.S.C. Anderlecht in the final.

During his career, Lombardo gained 18 caps for the Italy national side, between 1990 and 1997, scoring 3 goals, but injury and competition from other wide players, such as Donadoni, Di Livio, Pessotto, and Moriero, meant he was rarely a regular member of the national side, and he was never called up by Italy for a major tournament.

Regarded during his career as one of Sampdoria's best ever wingers, Lombardo's most recognisable characteristics as a footballer were his physical traits, as well as his exceptional pace, strength, stamina, and work-rate at both ends of the pitch, which allowed him to cover the right flank effectively; he also stood out for his professionalism, friendly personality, and dedication, which enabled him to avoid serious injuries for most of his career, and saw him make a name for himself as a consistent and decisive player for his teams, who was also a key figure in the dressing room.

Although he was not gifted with particularly outstanding talent or technical ability, he nevertheless possessed good dribbling skills and control when running with the ball at speed, and he frequently utilised his acceleration, power and agility to beat opponents effectively in one-on-one situations.

The following season, Lombardo won the Supercoppa Italiana in 1991 against previous Serie A champions A.S. Roma, as well as the Serie A title.

In fact, Lombardo also played in the Sampdoria side that reached but narrowly lost the European Cup Final in extra time to Cruyff's F.C. Barcelona under Vujadin Boškov.

He also enjoyed a successful season in 1993–94, where he scored 8 times in Serie A, and 5 in the Coppa Italia, enough to lead his team to a second Coppa Italia win in 1994, where he scored twice in the final.

In 1995, Lombardo made a move to defending Serie A champions Juventus under coach Marcello Lippi, joining former Sampdoria teammate Gianluca Vialli at the Turin based club.

Unfortunately, Lombardo had problems with injuries during his two-year spell, but still picked up medals for Serie A, UEFA Champions League the Intercontinental Cup, and the European Super Cup.

In his first season with the Bianconeri, Lombardo only scored 2 goals in the league, starring sporadically in the first team, competing with players such as Antonio Conte and Didier Deschamps for a place in the lineup.

Juventus, however, won the UEFA Champions League during the 1995–1996 season, regardless of having placed second in the domestic league, followed by the Intercontinental Cup.

In Lombardo's second season with Juventus, he also won his second Serie A title and his first European Super Cup title, scoring a goal in the first leg against Paris Saint Germain, at the Parc des Princes.

He also reached a second consecutive UEFA Champions League final with Juventus that season, only to lose out to Borussia Dortmund.

Nevertheless, he failed to score once in his second season; with only 2 goals in 35 appearances, and due to a string of poor performances, injuries, and inconsistency in Turin, he was released by the club, having been unable to return to the form he had experienced at Sampdoria during his time at Juventus.

In total, he managed 51 appearances and 4 goals in all competitions during his time with Juventus.

In 1997, Lombardo was on the move again, joining Premiership new-boys Crystal Palace.

He instantly became the star-player, and scored on his debut at Everton.

In early 1998, Mark Goldberg assumed control of the club, and manager Steve Coppell moved to the Director of Football post.

Lombardo, along with Swedish international Tomas Brolin as an interpreter, was appointed as caretaker player-manager, for the rest of the season.

Lombardo's season was curtailed by injury whilst with the Italy national squad in November (a recall came his way due to sparkling form with the Londoners).

A severe financial crisis and a need to cut Palace's wage bill resulted in Lombardo leaving in January 1999 to join a S.S. Lazio team managed by Sven-Göran Eriksson.

At Lazio, he resumed his streak of domestic and European cup competition victories, gaining second medals for the Cup Winners Cup (1999), Serie A (2000), the Supercoppa Italiana (2000), the Coppa Italia (2000), and the European Super Cup (1999).

In January 2001, Lombardo left Lazio, to re-join Sampdoria, where he would finish his career and go into coaching at the youth level.

Throughout his career, Lombardo was known for his resistance to injury, which enabled him to make 144 consecutive Serie A appearances.

In 2005, Lombardo was voted into Palace's Centenary XI, despite having only made 49 appearances for the Eagles (far fewer than any of the other ten players, showing how highly Palace fans held The Bald Eagle).

At the time of the injury Palace were 10th in the table, but by the time he came back to the first team, in April, they were bottom of the league.

Palace were subsequently relegated to the First Division (now The Championship), even though Lombardo's return led them to their only two home league wins of the season.

Lombardo decided to stay following relegation as Palace started poorly under new manager Terry Venables.