It was a summer of soccer, and in Italy in 1990, the air was filled with the smoke of competition. Everyone knows the Dutch "Three Musketeers" and West Germany's "Troika" of the peak of the showdown, but few people mentioned Maradona and Mateusz's legendary entanglement. In the "hometown battle" that was built by the concrete defense line, the blue army with perseverance and fighting spirit, picked up the glory of the third place in the World Cup. And this World Cup, Italy's main goalkeeper Walter Zenga, but also in the game to create a staggering record - up to 518 minutes without conceding a goal, so far no one can match. His famous words, "The goal is like my home, once I lose the ball, it is like my home has been invaded," are still being extolled by fans. The goalkeeper, who experienced the turbulent years of Italian football in the 80's, played alongside the Troika and conquered the mini World Cup and the European Cup, is still active as a coach in Italian football today.
Joined Inter's youth academy at 11, became a starter at 23 and established himself as an Italian international at 27
Born in Milan, Italy, on April 28, 1960, Walter Zenga trained from an early age with the nearby team Macallesi 1927. His father, Alfonso, was also a goalkeeper in his youth, although not as bright as his son, who also played for Napoli. From an early age, Zenga inherited his father's talent as a goalkeeper. A big man, he often faced older opponents in youth matches, and at the age of 11, the youngster became a member of the Milan worldwide youth team.
In the 1978-1979 season, at the age of 18, Zenga joined Salernitana on loan in Serie C1 and made 3 appearances. in the 1979-1980 season, he moved to Savona in Serie C2, where he gradually gained a starting position and made 23 appearances. In the 1980-1981 season, Zenga moved to Sambenedetxe in the 1st division, where he established himself as the starting goalkeeper, making 33 appearances and helping the team to move up to Serie B. In the 1980-1981 season, Zenga played for Sambenedetxe in the 1st division, making 33 appearances. In his second year at Sambenedetxe, Zenga made 34 appearances in Serie B, a period in which he made rapid progress, and in the summer of 1982, Zenga returned to Inter as a substitute for Ivano Bordone in the Italian national team. In his first season in the first team of Inter Milan, Zenga failed to make any Serie A appearances and only made five appearances in the Coppa Italia.
In the summer of 1983, at the age of 32, Bordon moved to Sampdoria, and then manager Luigi Radicci chose to trust Zenga, and did not bring in any other goalkeepers, but instead made the 23-year-old Zenga the team's starter. The trust of the manager Radice was soon rewarded. In the 1983-1984 Serie A season, Zenga made 30 appearances and conceded only 23 goals, a statistic that ranked among the top goalkeepers in Serie A. In the summer of 1984, Zenga was selected for the Italian National Olympic team, which traveled to the United States to participate in the Los Angeles Olympics that year.
Returning to the Blue and Blacks, Zenga is still the star goalkeeper of the World Milan, but the team manager has changed to Hilario Castagnet. However, due to the strength of the team, despite the fact that the World Milan was able to challenge for the Serie A title almost every season, they never won it. In the 1984-1986 season, Inter Milan were knocked out by La Liga giants Real Madrid in two consecutive League Cup semi-finals, which also stung Zenga deeply. In the 1985-1986 season, Inter again eliminated their opponents with a 3-1 win at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, but lost 1-5 at the Bernabeu, and once again went home in dismay. These two seasons were not bad for Zenga, who in the summer of 1986 was recruited by Smokies boss Beazolet for the World Cup in Mexico. The 26-year-old Zenga was only the team's third goalkeeper, and was preceded by Giovanni Galli, who had just moved from Fiorentina to AC Milan, and Roma goalkeeper Franco Tancredi. In that year's World Cup, Italy suffered a 1/8 final defeat to rival France, stopping in the round of 16, and Béalzot announced his resignation after Italy's exit. Former Italy youth team manager Vicini took over the coaching reins of the Blucerchiati, and he became an extremely influential coach in Zenga's career.
Immediately after his appointment, Vicini reinstated Zenga as the national team's starter. At the club level, Inter hired Trapattoni, a decorated Juventus coach, as the team's head coach. In the 1986-1987 season, Milan were Napoli's biggest rivals for the title, but with Zenga, Altobelli and Rummenigge hanging up their shirts due to injuries, it was all a pipe dream. In the end the World Milan collected another third place in Serie A. In 29 appearances that season, however, Zenga conceded only 17 goals, which helped him further cement his place as the national team's starting goalkeeper.In the 1987-1988 season, Inter brought in international striker and veteran Aldo Serena, who had played for all three northern powers. However, Serena's striker line with team captain and veteran striker Altobelli failed to produce chemistry for a long time, and the team's midfield mainstay Gianfranco Mattioli had no understanding with new Belgian Enzo Schiffo. The chaotic management of Inter's top management chilled Zenga, who tried to move to join Maradona's Napoli, but failed to do so. In this season, Inter ended up just taking the 5th place in the league.
A career high in his prime, a stunning record that remains unmatched to this day
The Federal Republic of Germany's Eurocup in the summer of 1988 became Zenga's first World Series. He played in all four of the team's matches as a starter. In the group stage, Italy drew 1-1 with hosts West Germany, then beat Spain 1-0 and took down Denmark 2-0 to get out of the tournament. However, in the semi-final against the Soviet Union, Italy lost 0-2. Zenga's first and only European Cup came to an end. Back in the Apennines, AC Milan, who had introduced Van Basten and Gullit and regained the league title, made Inter's top management envious. So in this summer, the team also threw away money, from Bayern Munich to poach Bremer and Mateusz two tough players, as well as Alessandro Bianchi and Argentine scorer Ramon Diaz and other people. This time, the Inter hierarchy finally spent money in the right place. Under Trapattoni's leadership, World Milan took 26 wins, 6 draws and 2 losses in 34 rounds of the 1988-1989 season, and the 58 points set a record for the highest number of league points in the era of Serie A's two-point system. From the Germans ate sweet Inter senior, and from Stuttgart introduced the golden bomber Klinsmann, however, did not expect Inter's German troika composition, the team has not once again inserted the league title.
In the 1989-1990 season, Maradona led Napoli to regain the Serie A title, while Sampdoria topped the table in the 1990-1991 season. In the 1991-1992 season, Trapattoni returned to Juve, and Inter brought in Corrado Aurico to coach the team. However, with the serious injury of Matteus, the team only managed to finish 8th, and the Serie A title was taken by AC Milan led by Fabio Capello. At the end of the season, the German troika went their separate ways and an era of World Milan came to an end. However, these three seasons were not without their share of successes, as in the summer of 1989 they won the Supercoppa Italiana, and in the 1990-1991 European Cup they won the competition by eliminating Roma with a 2-1 aggregate score over two rounds. At the level of individual honors, Zenga was voted the world's best goalkeeper by the IFFHS, the World Federation of Football History and Calculation, on three occasions, in 1989, 1990 and 1991. The Troika era was both Inter's most glorious four years at the end of the 20th century, and also the highest years of the late-blooming Zenga's career.
During this period, Zenga left the world's deepest impression, but not in the world of Milan, but in the Italian summer of 1990, the blue army, textbook defense. 1990 World Cup, Zenga has passed the age of Zenga as Italy's main goalkeeper to play, which is also his only World Cup trip. As the hosts, Italy was grouped with Austria, the United States and Czechoslovakia. In the group stage, Italy once again fell into the old habit of slowing down, scoring only 4 goals in 3 games, but the team relied on the excellent defense of Bergomi, Maldini and Baresi, as well as Zenga's high catching to achieve three complete victories: 1-0 elimination of Austria, 1-0 elimination of the United States, and 2-0 elimination of Czechoslovakia. The Blues became the only team in the 1990 World Cup that did not concede a goal in the group stage.
In the 1/8 final, Italy shut out Uruguay, led by Francescoli, 2-0, with Zenga making a number of brilliant saves to keep the goal intact, and in the quarter-final against Ireland, Italy completed the shutout with a score of 1-0. By now, Zenga's shutout streak had reached five games, setting a new record for goalkeepers not conceding consecutive goals.
In the semi-final, Italy welcomed Maradona's Argentina. Skilage helped Italy take the lead just 17 minutes into the match, and then Italy's concrete defense continued to block Argentina's attacks, with Zenga also doing a great job of blocking the inevitable shots from Bruchaga, Maradona and others. Just as Zenga extended his goal-less streak to 518 minutes, the saga came to an abrupt end when Maradona set up an attack and Caniggia put an end to Zenga's record with a header that cracked the Italian goal. The two teams went into a penalty shootout, with the Blucerchiati going out as Donadoni and Serena missed their penalties. In the third and fourth place finals, Zenga still played the whole match, and Italy eliminated England 2-1 to win the third place in the World Cup.
All three group stage matches, as well as the 1/8th and 1/4th finals, were shut out until the 68th minute of the second half of the semifinals. Zenga's 518-minute goalless streak is still the longest in the World Cup. Although Barthez, Buffon and Casillas and other goalkeepers have been close to this number, but no one can break, which can also be seen that the difficulty of this record.
Batman nickname actually comes from a ditty, drifting coach rumored to be in CFL
After Italy was eliminated by Norway in the Euro 1992 qualifiers, Italian manager Vicini stepped down. With the arrival of Sacchi, Zenga also relinquished the starting goalkeeper's position in the national team to Pagliuca, and retired from the Italian national team in the summer of 1992. Despite only five years in the national team and 58 appearances, Zenga conceded only 21 goals (0.36 average) and made 41 clean sheets (70.69%). Both of these figures are records for any goalkeeper in the Italian national team. In an interview after announcing his retirement from the national team, Zenga hummed a song by the Italian band 883 Someone Killed Spider-Man, which is actually the origin of Zenga's nickname "Spider-Man". In European soccer, Zenga was nicknamed "Paraglider" because of his ability to save penalty kicks and his extreme stance.
Zenga bid farewell to the Blue and Blacks in the summer of 1994 after winning another League Cup for Inter. Zenga made 473 appearances for Inter during his 12 years with the club, and became the first goalkeeper to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the first Inter Hall of Fame class of 2018, beating out Francesco Toldo and Gianluca Paliuca.
World Milan traded Zenga and Felli, the master of the oval, for Pagliuca from Sampdoria, who was already 34 years old. In the summer of 1995, Sampdoria visited the Workers' Stadium in Beijing to play China again, trying to avenge last year's 2-4 loss, but this time losing 1-3. Zenga's goal was penetrated by the national team three times, and in the summer of 1996, Zenga played for one season with Padova in the second division. A year later, he moved to Major League Soccer, joining the New England Revolution. During his time in the United States, an interesting thing happened to Zenga. On January 15, 1998, Zenga announced his retirement. A year later he returned to the New England Revolution as a player and coach, but only for one year.
After this, Zenga picked up the coaching whip and started his wandering path. In October 2016, after coaching Wolves for 2 months, Zenga was sacked by Fosun Group, which had just acquired the team. After that, Zenga returned to coaching in Serie A, returning to his roots. In recent seasons, Zenga has coached Italian teams such as Catania, Palermo, Sampdoria, Crotone, Venice and Cagliari, but the results were not outstanding.After the 2019-2020 season, Zenga was sacked by Cagliari and has been idle since then. At the beginning of this year, there was news that the Chinese Super League team Dalian Ren was interested in inviting Zengjia to coach, but this news eventually did not come to an end. It remains to be seen what will happen to Zenga in the twilight of his coaching career, as he is a late bloomer in his career.
