In the picture...

Embed from Getty Images

May 1982: Aston Villa's Gary Williams with a sliding tackle on Bayern Munich's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

The Serie A's ban on foreigners

Many of the greatest Italian club sides are heavily identified with the foreign stars they featured. The late 80's Milan built around the Dutch trio of Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten immediately springs to mind. But the phenomenon goes back much further. Thirty years earlier Milan had featured another trio of foreigners: the Swedes Gren, Nordahl and Lidholm (affectionately nicknamed GreNoLi). And when Italian clubs had started to win their first European cups in the 60's, foreign stars continued to play their part. Helenio Herrera's Grande Inter featured the Spaniard Luis Suares as its playmaker and the Brazilian Jaïr on the wing.

And we haven't even mentioned the so-called Oriundi yet. Those were South-American players of Italian descent, who -thanks to an expediently procured passport- often even featured in the Italian national team. Their history goes back even further. The World Cup that Italy won in 1934 would never have been possible without the three Argentinean players they fielded, including one of the absolute stars of that team: Raimundo Orsi. So foreigners and Italian teams, a long and happy marriage? Not quite, because for fifteen years Italian clubs were in fact not allowed to sign foreign players.