Birthday

1966-12-18

Place of Birth

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Biography

Gianluca Pagliuca (Italian pronunciation: [dʒanˈluːka paʎˈʎuːka]; born 18 December 1966) is an Italian football coach and former professional goalkeeper. He is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and one of Italy's best keepers ever. Throughout his career, he played for Sampdoria, Inter, Bologna, and Ascoli in Italy, winning several domestic and international trophies. At international level, he represented Italy at three FIFA World Cups (1990, 1994, and 1998), most notably reaching the 1994 World Cup final as Italy's starting goalkeeper. He is the player with the fifth most appearances (592), and the second best penalty-stopper (24 saves) in Serie A behind Samir Handanović, although other specialists such as Júlio César and Handanović have a higher success rate. Description above from the Wikipedia article Gianluca Pagliuca, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.