Calcio Legends: Beppe Signori

I am not ashamed to admit that here in this post we are talking about one of my favourite players of all time. Guiseppe 'Beppe' Signori is a living legend among the Lazio faithful and still in many peoples book is regarded as the best forward and arguably player that ever stood in front of the Curva Nord. Beppe began his career at Leffe in 1984 before joining yoyo club Piacenza in 1986. He moved onto Foggia in 1989 where he became part of a very attacking team lead by Zendek Zemen, and upon their promotion to Serie A Signori registered 11 goals. However, he moved onto Lazio and became a legend. 107 goals in 152 games for the Aquilotti has ensured this status for years to come, although this was not a status that transcended to a national scale in the form of the Azzurri shirt. Indeed, while playing for Italy Signori was often deployed on the left wing leaving Baggio to take the glory up front, as was the case in his only major National tournament the FIFA 1994 World Cup in the United States. Still, despite his mismanagement at National level Signori did manage 7 goals in the Azzurri colours.

However, he managed far more at Lazio and that resulted in three Serie A top scorers titles in 1993, 1994 and 1996 after moving to the blue side of Rome from Zemen's attacking revelation in Foggia. Yet, he was shunted out of the club after the arrival of Sven Goran Eriksson in 1997. Eriksson brought with him Roberto Mancini and Alen Boksic from Juve, and all of a sudden Il Capitano's place in the team was under threat. After a lack of playing time, and a total lack of respect towards him, Signori moved onto Sampdoria for a rather unsuccessful spell for the remainder of the 1997/1998 season where only 3 goals were registered for the usually ever reliable hitman in 17 games. Many, including myself at the time, thought that his best days had gone and he was ultimately a player in decline, especially as injuries were appearing. How wrong I was, as he moved to the rehabilitation palace of Bologna to turn his career around, just as Roberto Baggio had done the season previous and Marco Di Vaio did in the last Serie A season.

Signori: The Bologna Years
Beppe moved onto Bologna and reaped the rewards of a change of scenery. Indeed, in his first season alone he recaptured his scoring abilities nurtured at Lazio scoring 15 goals in 28 games. His scoring abilities almost helped Bologna onto the UEFA cup final after a narrow defeat in the Semi's that year to French giants Marseille. Success followed success at Bologna as he scored goal after goal registering 15 goals in the 1998/1999 season and 16 in the 1999/2000 campaign in just 23 games due to injury. He played on at Bologna until 2004 and retired from the demands of Serie A that year, moving onto Greek and Hungarian clubs until 2006 when he finally decide to hang up his boots. Despite his scoring success though Beppe never got his hands on a trophy, which for me is an absolute travesty. He should have been treated with the respect he deserved at Lazio and stayed on for the golden period where trophy followed trophy for the blue side of Rome. Still, he is and always will be a Calcio legend.