Antonio Cabrini (born 8 October 1957) is an Italian professional football coach currently of Italy Women’s National and a former player. He has played left-back, mainly with Juventus. He won the 1982 FIFA World Cup with the Italian National Team.
In 2007, he was very close to become the manager of the Syrian National Football Team. After long-running negotiations between the Syrian Football Federation and the Syrian national team sponsors, no agreement was achieved between the sides. Currently, he is part of Al Jazeera Sports channel analysts team that covers the Serie A football matches.
Cabrini was born in Cremona, Lombardy. He made his professional football debut with the local team U.S. Cremonese in the Serie C during the 1973–74 season, making 3 appearances and gaining a starting place the following 1974–1975 season. In the 1975–76 season he played in the Seie B for Atalanta, and in the summer of 1976 he was acquired by Juventus, the team for which he was to spend most of his career.
With Juventus, he won the Italian Serie A 6 times, the Coppa Italia 2 times (Italian Cup), 1 UEFA Super Cup, 1 UEFA Champions League, 1 UEFA CUP and 1 European/South American Cup. He played a total of 352 Serie A matches, scoring 35 goals. In 1989, after 13 successful seasons with Juve, he moved to Bologna for two more years before retiring as a player.
Cabrini was nicknamed Bell’Antonio (“beautiful Antonio”), because of his popularity as a fascinating and good-looking football player. On the field, his technical and physical qualities made of him one of the best defenders of the history of Italian football.
Cabrini was part of the legendary 1982 World Cup-winning team that included goalkeeper Dino Zoff, Gaetano Scirea, Giuseppe Bergomii, Claudio Gentile in defense and Paolo Rossi in attack.
He was called up to Italy’s being part of the list of 20 players to participate in the 1978 FIFA World Cup despite being uncapped (he however, had 23 caps for junior teams). He earned his first cap in Italy’s opening game against France and became an international regular for the next 9 years. He participated in all of Italy’s games in 3 consecutive World Cups, in 1978, 1982 and 1986. Overall, Cabrini played 18 games during World Cup final stages, winning the 1982 edition despite missing a penalty in the final against West Germany.
He earned 73 caps for his country and scored 9 goals (a record for a defender), ending his career with the Azzurri in October 1987. He captained the national side 10 times.
Cabrini started a coaching career in 2000 with Serie C1 club Arezzo, replacing Serse Cosmi and losing promotion on playoffs. He then coached Serie B‘s Crotone with little fortune, and later served as head coach for Serie C1 clubs Pisa and Novara Calcio, although with dismal results.
He was announced to become the head coach of Syria Football National Team on September 2007, but soon after the announcement, problems started in the Syrian FA between the board of Directors and the Syrian National Teams Sponsors and thus the agreement with Cabrini was finally terminated on February 2008, before he actually managed the team. He was planned to take the Syrian team through the World Cup 2010 Qualifications and to make a preparation camp in Italy, but all that was canceled after the financial problems within the FA.
Since 14 May 2012 Cabrini is the new coach of Italy’s Women National Team.
Later on 2008, he briefly contested the Italian TV reality show L’Isola dei Famosi (localized version of Celebrity Survivor). On June 2009 he entered into politics by joining Italy of Values, as party responsible for sports issues in the Lazio region.
Heroes of Football 