Giuliani Sarti
Italian goalkeeper who once turned out in pink long johns
GIULIANO SARTI, who has died aged 83, was accounted by Italians as among the finest goalkeepers in their footballing history; he was particularly associated with the great Inter Milan team of the mid-sixties, which reached three consecutive European Cup finals – losing the last against the “Lisbon Lions” of Celtic.
Sarti had a distinctive style of goalkeeping that was credited with having revolutionised the position in Italy. He came late to the game, having largely played volleyball as a notably tall boy.
He did not venture between the sticks until he was 17, and then only because the amateur team whose match he had gone to watch found itself a man short. Three years later, he was playing in Serie A.
Because of his lack of experience, his technique was largely instinctive. Unlike other ’keepers, who made a fetish of acrobatic athleticism, Sarti relied entirely on positioning and cool judgment.
He would stay stock-still on his line, narrowing angles, calculating the intentions of a striker and looking him in the eyes as he approached.
So self-possessed was he that while making his way in semi-professional teams he would enjoy a smoke during matches. Later, in a chilly match against Rangers, he turned out in pink long johns. It was such unorthodoxy that perhaps explained why he only won eight international caps.
Sarti made his mark with Fiorentina, for whom he played 220 times between 1954 and 1963. The Florence side had never won the league but claimed their first scudetto in 1956, only losing a single game, and the last when Sarti conceded twice in the final 10 minutes. The next year, the team reached the European Cup final but lost to Real Madrid. In 1961, Fiorentina won the Italian Cup.
Having moved to Inter, Sarti became an integral part of the catenaccio defence devised by the manager Helenio Herrera. After losing the league title in a play-off in 1964, the team won it in 1965 and 1966, capping these triumphs with victories over Real and Benfica in the European Cup final too.
The match against Celtic in 1967 was Sarti’s fourth European Cup final, a record for an Italian keeper (Gigi Buffon has played only three). Inter’s defeat was compounded a few days later when Sarti uncharacteristically let a shot slip through his hands against Mantova, enabling Juventus to pip the nerazzurri to the title. That spelled the end of Inter’s dominance and Sarti dwelled on his mistake for many years thereafter.
Giuliano Sarti was born on October 2 1933 at Castello d’argile, north of Bologna. He was the third of five brothers. His father was a greengrocer. When Giuliano was 10, the war brought an early end to his schooling and he was instead sent around on his bicycle to barter for food for the family.
In the post-war years, he hawked produce then considered exotic, such as lemons and artichokes, and sold salted seeds – lupin beans and the like – to queues of cinemagoers. This entrepreneurial spirit stood him in good stead at the end of his footballing career, which wound down from 1968 with two years as a backup to Roberto Anzolin at Juventus, during which he hardly played.
He later confessed that the highlight of his time in Turin was watching his beloved Fiorentina win their second scudetto there in 1969. Sarti retired the following year after a low-key season with a side in the fourth division.
Having briefly but unsuccessfully ventured into management with Lucchese, he set up an industrial cleaning company, later diversifying into pest control. The business expanded to employ several hundred people and he eventually sold it, several years ago, for 3 million euros.
Sarti is survived by his wife Anna Pia, twin sons and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.
Giuliano Sarti, born October 2 1933, died June 5 2017