Giovanni "Gianni" Rivera is an Italian politician and former footballer who played as a midfielder.
Background
Rivera was born in 1943, in Alessandria, Piedmont. Rivera had a tough upbringing in Alessandria, which suffered heavy bombing during the later stages of the Second World War, with hundreds of residents killed. His family were not wealthy but Rivera found distraction playing football with his friends in the street and it was obvious at an early age that he had talent.
Giovanni's father, a railway mechanic, arranged for him to have a trial with the local football club when he was 13 and he was quickly taken on as a youth team player. The club, US Alessandria, competes in the semi-professional Lega Pro nowadays but was a much grander concern as Rivera was growing up and when he made his senior debut in 1959, aged just 15 years and 288 days, it was in a top-flight Serie A match against Internazionale.
Career
Giovanni was the second youngest player in Serie A history. By the age of 17, Rivera had been sold to AC Milan for 90 million lire.
Small and slight, Rivera had to win over his critics, some of whom decried him as a 'luxury' player in that he was never one for the physical side of football. Gianni Brera, one of Italy's foremost football writers, dubbed him abatino - literally 'little abbot' - and did not intend it as a compliment.
Yet Rivera's intelligence and imagination, first as a winger and in time as a classical 'number 10', playing just behind the forwards, enabled him to score and create goals in abundance.
Rivera helped Milan win the 1962 scudetto - the Serie A title - when he was only 18 and when the rossoneri became the first Italian club to win the European Cup a year later, beating Benfica 2-1 at Wembley, it was Rivera who set up both Milan's goals for José Altafini.
In his international career, Rivera was a member of the Italy team that won the European Championships on home soil in 1968 and scored the winning goal in an epic semi-final against West Germany in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico as the Italians triumphed 4-3.
This was the tournament in which Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italy's coach, could not decide between Rivera and the similarly gifted Sandro Mazzola as his playmaker and ended up reaching a bizarre compromise that he termed the staffetta - 'relay' - in which Rivera, captain of AC Milan, and Mazzola, captain of their fierce city rivals Internazionale, would play one half each, with Rivera often coming on at half-time.
It worked effectively in the quarter-finals, when Italy overwhelmed the hosts Mexico 4-1 with three goals in the second half, and against the Germans, when Rivera's influence in extra time was decisive, although Valcareggi abandoned the policy in the final, with Rivera kept on the bench until the final six minutes, by which time the brilliant Brazilians were well on their way to a 4-1 win.
Rivera played his last match for Milan in 1979, retiring after 658 club appearances, having scored 164 goals. As with many outstanding club servants in Italian football, he was given what was assumed would be a job for life with the rossoneri, who made him a vice-president.
All that changed, however, when Silvio Berlusconi bought the club in 1986. Rivera and the future Italian Prime Minister were diametrically opposed politically. The former player made outspoken comments about the controversial Berlusconi's involvement, as a politician of the right, in what was traditionally regarded as the club of Milan's working class, after which he was stripped of his status as vice-president and had his right to match tickets withdrawn. Not surprisingly, Rivera resigned.
It was soon afterwards that he stood for election to the Italian Parliament, initially winning election as a centrist but moving to the centre-left. As a member of the Italian Renewal movement set up by former Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, he served in the Olive Tree coalition led by Romano Prodi that defeated Berlusconi in 1996. For a while, Rivera was under-secretary of state for defence.
After his stint as an MEP, Rivera returned to football in 2013, appointed by the Italian Federation as President of the Technical Sector, overseeing the training and qualification of coaches.
Regarded as one of Italy's and Milan's greatest ever footballers, one of the best players of his generation, and one of the most talented advanced playmakers of all time, in 1999, Rivera placed 19th in IFFHS's election for the World Player of the 20th Century, and was also chosen by the same federation as Italy's best player of the Century, and the 12th-best European player of the Century; he was also selected as Milan's best player of the 20th Century in a poll organised by La Gazzetta dello Sport. In 2004, Pelé chose Rivera as part of the FIFA 100 greatest living footballers and he placed 35th in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. In 2011, he was the recipient of the UEFA President's Award, which recognises outstanding achievements as a footballer, professional excellence and exemplary personal qualities. In 2013, he was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame, and in 2014, he was named the 80th greatest player in World Cup history by The Guardian, ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In 2015, he became the first Italian footballer out of 100 athletes to be inducted into Italy's sports Walk of Fame.
Rivera started his career in politics in 1986, becoming a member of the Italian Parliament in 1987 with the Christian Democracy party; he was, re-elected in 1992, in 1994, under the Segni Pact, and in 1996, under the Uniti nell'Ulivo coalition. He served as an under-secretary for defense under Romano Prodi's government and later as a non-inscrit Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Views
Quotations:
"I told myself, there's no other alternative for me but to get the ball, take it past everyone and score."
— Rivera on his mental state following his error which led to West Germany's temporary equaliser in extra-time of the 1970 World Cup semi-final, and ahead of his match-winning goal one minute later.
Membership
On 3 July 1968, Rivera founded the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC), in Milan, along with several fellow footballers, such as Giacomo Bulgarelli, Sandro Mazzola, Ernesto Castano, Giancarlo De Sisti, and Giacomo Losi, as well as the recently retired Sergio Campana, also a lawyer, who was appointed president of the association.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Quotes from others about the person
"I was worried that Rivera would come on, I thought that with Rivera Italy would be more dangerous."
— Pelé on Rivera's limited playing time in the 1970 FIFA World Cup Final.
"Yes, he doesn't run a lot, but if I want good football, creativity, the art of turning around a situation from the first to the ninetieth minute, only Rivera can give me all of this with his flashes. I wouldn't want to exaggerate, because in the end it's only football, but Rivera in all of this is a genius."
— Nereo Rocco on Rivera.
"You watch footage from those years now and everyone seems slower than now, Rivera perhaps slower still and keeping the ball too much, but his forte was in spraying inspired passes around and always going forward, with a more than average eye for goal for a midfielder..."
— ESPN columnist Roberto Gotta on Rivera's playing style.
Connections
Rivera is married to Laura Marconi; together they have two children: Chantal and Gianni. He has another daughter, Nicole, with the Italian former actress and television personality Elisabetta Viviani, with whom he was in a relationship at the time.
