Egypt's new coach Tardelli, a look into the man himself...

We all remember his screamer versus Germany in the World Cup 1982 final. We all saw him running and screaming in joy with his name written in small yellow italics down the screen. Seconds after seeing his ferocious 20-yard drive beat Harold Schumacher, Tardelli picked himself off the floor, began shaking his head and waving his fists before bursting into tears as he rushed to embrace his compatriots on the substitutes bench. It was fitting that the hard-tackling Juventus midfielder should score in the final. He was Italy’s man of the match that balmy July night in Madrid.

That was 22 years ago believe it or not.

Earth did some of its spinning around the sun and Tardelli came to be our national team coach.

The team need a strong figure that players can look up to. EP took a look into his honours, and as expected he is simply one of the game's all time greats.. a fact.

Marco Tardelli:

Born: Capanne di Careggine, 24/9/54
Position: Midfield
Serie A debut: Juventus 2-1 Verona, 5/10/75
Last Serie A game: Inter 1-0 Fiorentina, 26/4/87
Club: Pisa, Como, Juventus, Inter, San Gallo
International debut: Italy 3-1 Portugal, 7/4/76
Last cap: Italy 1-2 Norway, 25/9/85
International caps: 81
International goals: 6

Honours:

World Cup (1982)
Lo Scudetto (1977, 78, 81, 82, 84)
Coppa Italia (1979, 83)
European Cup (1985)
Cup-Winners’ Cup (1984)
UEFA Cup (1977)
European Super Cup (1984)

But when we came to his coaching career, it was for sure not the best in the world.

He coached in Italy serie B then with Inter in serie A. Then back to the minor's league. In all of his obviously “short” spills, he was sacked due to a string of bad results after a promising start!

But his national teams' results are much better by all means. Being assigned the future Azzurri players isn’t a light task and the Italian Federation must have had absolute trust in him. His greatest achievement details were provided by juventuz.com. "He took his coaching badge at Coverciano in 1988-89 and was appointed assistant to Italian Under-21 Coach Cesare Maldini. He had an indifferent time at club level with Cesena and Como and returned to the Under-21 set-up with Maldini. In 1998 he was appointed Coach of the Azzurrini and masterminded the 2000 European Championship triumph. It came as no surprise to see Tardelli mentioned as a likely successor to Dino Zoff when he quit as Coach of the Azzurri after Euro 2000. But his time should come when Giovanni Trapattoni eventually retires."

He is known to be very calm in difficult situations and his ability to lead a team. He did it as a player and then later as a coach.

We know that the current generation of players has what it takes to be the greatest ever with all the attention given to them and the international experience they all gained from tough club competitions on the regional level, and from playing abroad for some of them.

What they need is a strong figure to look up to, respect , admire and Marco maybe is the missing ingredient.

In terms of optimism and pessimism, either way is possibl. Looking back on his history, things for us can go either way.

Once more Egyptian football fans will have to wait and see. As for Tardelli, EP wish him the best and he will have our support till we achieve our dream and we can finally see an Egyptian player running Tardelli's way after scoring a 20 yard screamer in Germany also, but in 2006 they will play as hosts...

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