Once upon a time in northern Italy, there was a region with the name Veneto. The region of Veneto had a big influence on football in Italy with players like Gianfranco Zigoni, but the region had no success in Italian football. The biggest trophy this region had gotten before 1984 was the Coppa Italia with Venezia. The city of Verona was most known for the story of Romeo and Juliet, but that would change with Verona in 1985.

The city that is known for Romeo and Juliet

Verona was a team bouncing between Serie B and Serie A in the 70s and 80s. Verona had a long period in Serie A until they got relegated in 1979. This relegation hit Verona hard because their longtime President of the club Saverio Garonzi was stepping down from his position. Hellas Verona was in total restart mode. Giuseppe Brizzi was their new President, but he also stepped down as President after just one season. The whole situation was weird and Verona was at this time a medium side in Serie B.

More bad news was coming to Hellas Verona. A match-fixing scandal in Italian football made Milan and Lazio get relegated to Serie B with Verona. This was the Totonero scandal in 1980. One of the most known players to be involved was Pablo Rossi (Perugia). Paolo Rossi was suspended for three years (reduced to two on appeal) and upon his return helped Italy in winning the 1982 FIFA World Cup with Rossi also became the top scorer of the tournament.

Paolo Rossi was one of the main match fixer in the Totonero. AC Milan and Lazio DQ from the Serie A.

Giuseppe Brizzi’s replacement was Celestino Guidotti. Celestino Guidotti was not going to leave Hellas and had a big ambitious plan of winning the Scudetto within 10 years. Celestino had, after one season with the club, decided to kick Giancarlo Cadè out of the club after ending 16th in the league. Celestino Guidotti wanted the Cesena coach Osvaldo Bagnoli. Osvaldo Bagnoli got Cesena promoted to Serie A in 1980-81 in second place after AC Milan. Osvaldo Bagnoli took the job as Hellas Verona coach and more success was to come.

Osvaldo Bagnoli brought plenty of players into the team. Players like Di Gennaro, Garella and Penzo were all rejects from big clubs in Italy. This trend would continue for the next three season for Bagnoli. The reason why Bagnoli did this was because he was a Milan reject himself and wanted to give them a new chance for glory. Di Gennaro was an amazing ball distributor but was extremely slow. He wouldn’t be able to play in this era of football. Bagnoli was collecting plenty of talent which the Italian media thought were great, but in hindsight weren’t that talented.

The mastermind to their success Osvaldo Bagnoli.

Hellas Verona played in the toughest Serie B imaginable with Sampdoria, Lazio (because of Totonero and they still hadn’t come up) and Genoa. Bagnoli had, the season before, ended number 2 with Cesena and they were much more talented if you ask the Italian media, but the reality was different. Hellas Verona won the Serie B with 1 point over Pisa and Sampdoria. Hellas Verona had made a jump from 16th place to 1st place.

Bagnoli’s team was now in the Serie A and that meant they needed to buy some more players. More players would then mean more rejects from top clubs. Ezio Sella (Fiorentina reject) and Pietro Fanna (Juventus reject) to name a few. Verona was also allowed to collect two foreign players to their squad. The first player was Władysław Żmuda. Żmuda and Poland ended in 3rd place at the World Cup the same summer in 1982, so they picked him up because of that. Zmuda was one of the key players in Poland’s campaign. Zmuda was a defender but would get a serious knee injury which would affect him for the rest of his career. The second foreign player was Dirceu. Dirceu was already out of his prime. Dirceu was 30 years at the time and was just there for a season before doing nothing at Napoli the season after.

Zmuda (left) and Dirceu (right). Hellas Verona’s two foreign players.

Their first season in Serie A was pretty successful. Verona got to 4th place in the league which was a shock for everyone. All teams in the Serie A had two foreign players which made it very interesting because no team could get all the talents on one team. Instead, the talent was spread out around the league.

Verona’s second season in Serie A was not as good as the first one. Hellas Verona ended 6th place this season. Verona had sold a lot of players with the likes of Penzo (to Juventus) and Dirceu (to Napoli). They also picked up legendary Joe Jordan (from Milan) for one season before selling him again. Verona also collected plenty of their key players the following season with Mauro Ferroni (from Sampdoria), Silvano Fontolan (from Como, but Inter reject) and Giuseppe Galderisi – Juventus reject). However, as Celestino Guidotti and Osvaldo Bagnoli were saying “We have one goal and that’s a Scudetto”. Bagnoli said, later on, that after the 1986-87 season was their plan goal to win the Scudetto, but they got ahead of schedule.

The summer of 1984 had Verona brought two new foreign players in Preben Elkjær (from Lokeren) and Hans-Peter Briegel (Kaiserslautern). Briegel and Elkjær would be game-changers for Verona going into the next season. Briegel was a full back but played as a central midfielder for Verona. Briegel was known for being extremely tough and strong in his tackles. Briegel had enormous legs like John Terry.

Preben Elkjær (left) and Briegel (right).

Preben Elkjær was brought into the team to be the star. Preben was a powerful and snappy attacker and was difficult to stop. It was particularly the way he dribbled that was devastating to the opponent. What he did was change the pace of his dribbles. Gianni Brera (journalist) described him as a buffalo, a cruiser and an impetuous striker for his power. Preben was a raging bull to say the least.

Bagnoli was an old school coach by his own words. He was a skilled motivator and his problem solving on the team was at an elite level. Bagnoli would always apply the so-called Catenaccio (an Italian term for defensive tactics that roughly translates to “The Chain”). This wasn’t the classic version of Catenaccio. Instead, Bagnoli had implemented counter-attacks (Leicester comes to mind from recent memory with the same style) and a more fluid way of playing the ball while applying a mixed zone marking in the defensive phase. Bagnoli preferred a 3-5-2 system with a Libero to support the left-hand side if there were any problems defensively. When you look at the formation it makes you think how the hell did this work, but it just did. They played with two markers and a libero.

The formation

The Libero of the team was their longtime captain Roberto Tricella. Tricella is also a reject from Inter Milan but was seen as an extremely talented defender. Tricella was their best defender and was world class at reading the game. Ferroni would play at the right center back position, but he would normally behave like a right back which looks very weird for us today. Ferroni was right or left back normally, but at Verona, the role was more special. The last defender was Silvano Fontolan, a slow center defender that could set a long pass. He didn’t match today’s football with offside traps. He was an extremely athletic center back, but couldn’t play football. Even their goalkeeper Claudio Garella was famous for using his feet which were an outlandish concept at that time.

One of the most loved and important players for Hellas Verona (Tricella the captain of Verona)

The midfield were all raging bulls except Di Gennaro because he couldn’t run. During ball possession, Bagnoli would ask his players to slow down the game and play through Di Gennaro or hit quickly on the counterattack making the most of their chances. The midfield was constructed with 3 center midfielders, one wide midfielder, and a winger. The two wide players had very different roles. The right wing is Pietro Fanna. Pietro Fanna’s role is way more offensive than the left midfielder. Pietro Fanna wasn’t running back to the defence instead he was ready to run the counter. Fabio Marangon was the left midfielder. Marangon was playing like a left wing back in today’s football. Volpati, who played right center midfielder, was playing right wingback most of the game because Fanna was never in the defence. Di Gennaro was just playing as a playmaker that didn’t move at all because he was very slow, and Briegel was their real box-to-box midfielder for what I can tell after watching their games.

Di Gennaro was the main playmaker and is wrongly portrayed by many.

The two forwards were both classic types of strikers. Giuseppe Galderisi (1,71cm) was also known as the midget because of his height and Paolo Rossi was the type of striker that had speed and was a great finisher. Preben was a powerful and snappy attacker and was difficult to stop.

The midget was the top scorer for Hellas Verona this season.

Hellas Verona was going into the 1984-85 season as a massive underdog. This season Inter and Juventus were favourites to win the title and after them, the race was open for everybody including Hellas Verona. All the teams had two foreign players on each team. This season was the greatest class of foreigners within these rules. The foreign players were the likes of Zico (Udinese), Falcao (Roma), Socrates (Fiorentina), Platini (Juventus) and the greatest player in the world (Maradona) arrival to Naples in the summer of 1984.

Legends everywhere in the Serie A. Maradona (left) and Zico (right).

Preben Elkjær and Briegel had their debut in the Coppa Italia against Benevento (yes that Benevento). Preben Elkjær scored a hat-trick in his debut. The won their preliminary group with 9 points after 5 games. Remember a victory was still 2 points at the time.

Verona’s first game of the season was at their home stadium in Marcantonio Bentegodi. Their opponent was the most hyped team in Italy. Napoli had just collected the world best player for a World Record fee into the new season from Barcelona. Maradona was kept in the pocket of Briegel and Fontolan. They tag teamed Maradona to keep him quiet and were not focussing on Bertoni and Penzo. Briegel scored first, then scored the midget, and lastly scored Di Gennaro. Di Gennaro’s goal was to go up 3-1 and Hellas Verona took first place in Serie A. Hellas Verona won the two following games against Ascoli and Zico’s Udinese. Preben Elkjær scored his goal against Ascoli.

Verona had their two biggest tests in their two following games. The first game was a boring one against Inter. The game ended 0-0, but Hellas Verona was still number 1. [Highlights] Bagnoli and his boys were going into matchday 5 against the greatest team in Italy for the last 4 years. Juventus had won 3 out of 4 Scudetti and they still had Micheal Platini and Gaetano Scriea. Verona was playing at their full home stadium Marcantonio Bentegodi (41.360). Hellas Verona took the lead in the 62nd minute after the Juventus stopper Tacconi misjudged a cross and gave Galderisi a free header to an open goal. Verona scored a second goal and this goal is still in their fans memories today.

Tricella’s long goal kick finds Preben Elkjær on the left wing. Preben Elkjær than dribbled past Juventus’ right back and got into the penalty box. The defender didn’t give up and made a last-ditch tackle on Preben Elkjær. This tackle made Elkjær’s boot came off like in Cinderella. Preben Elkjær continues his attack and beats another defender before sending the shot into the goal. Truly an iconic moment in Serie A history.Preben Elkjær´s Cinderella Goal

Hellas Verona was still rolling in the league and on matchday 10 they would play a big game against current number 2 in the league – Torino. Verona was away from home in this game against Torino. Torino was breathing down Verona’s neck. If Torino won this game, it would have seen them overtake Verona at the top. Verona, in keeping their first place, kept their heads above the water and won after a hard-fought game with plenty of physical contact and intense football. Verona won 2-1 and took a 3-point lead.

Hellas Verona first lost a game on matchday 15 against Avellino, a 2-1 away from home. [Highlights] However, they were still first place and had an important win against Lazio with Micheal Laudrup. After their loss, the gap to Inter Milan was only 1 point. Verona was involved in another crazy game on Matchday 18 as they travelled to Udine to face mid-table Udinese with the star Zico. Verona was up 3-0 in the game, but this lead wouldn’t hold any water and Udinese ate away at the Verona’s lead and levelled the game at 3-3 with 30 minutes to play. However, Verona was quick to fire back with goals from their two foreign players Preben Elkjær and Briegel to end the game 3-5 to Verona in the last game of the first round of the season.

Bagnoli had his interviews this season in the same way, all the time saying we are getting closer and we have to keep our heads straight and he always wanted to show humbleness. Bagnoli knew the other big teams had issues. That’s why they believed in winning the league.

Hellas Verona would then play a draw with Inter Milan at Verona’s home court. Hans-Peter Briegel scored the equalizer in the 48th with a header. Hellas missed 6 first team players because of the flu. [Highlights] Juventus was their next opponent and this time the game ended in a draw after Juventus scored in the 74th minute, but Hellas Verona scored just two minutes after. Di Gennaro scored this super important goal for Hellas Verona. [Highlights] Inter was getting closer to Verona. The following week, Verona played Roma and they scraped past a determined AS Roma side 1-0 with Elkjaer scoring the solitary goal. [Highlights]

Inter had meanwhile lost two games and Hellas Verona was just 1 point off winning the league. Even after losing to Torino. Verona could win the league against Atalanta in Bergamo. Atalanta went 1-0 up front. Verona equalized to 1-1 after Preben Elkjær collects a loose ball and then sends it into the net. Hellas Verona were champions of the Serie A. They were number 1 from day 1 to the last matchday.

The city would celebrate their champions in Verona’s last game at home against Avellino. [Highlights] Verona smashes Avellino 4-2 and the city of Verona were champions. This was the first time the Veneto region had won the Scudetto and it is still their only Scudetto to this day. Preben Elkjær ended second at the Ballon d’Or this year. Hellas Verona defence was the main reason for their success, only conceding 19 goals in 30 games. Claudio Garella saved them many games this season and was for many their most important player.

Hellas Verona had won their Scudetto.

Verona’s players said themselves that they didn’t understand what they had just achieved. Parallel to Verona success would always be Leicester. Leicester won the Premier League 21 years later. The top teams in Serie A had an off year and the same happened to the Premier League teams. Ranieri also took this narrative after winning the league and said it was the same thing. A parallel to the Cinderella story is very clear. They were the overlooked club, while teams like Juventus, Inter and Milan were always winning. Then one day Preben Elkjær lost his boot and they become champion, but they also weren’t overlooked anymore.

The gang reunited in 2015 to their 30-year anniversary.

“Today we do not realize what enterprise we have achieved, but it will be the course of time that will make us understand.” — Domenico Volpati

This was the only season of the Serie A where referees games were chosen at random and not predetermined. Many think that why the league table was looking so weird. Juventus ended 5th and Torino was second.

Platini (18 goals) would end up as league top score while the midget (Galderisi) was Verona’s top goalscorer with 11 goals in the league. The team with most fans per game was Napoli with 77,000 people each home game because of the hype of Maradona.

Platini ended as the top scorer of the league, while Maradona was 3rd on the top score list.

Juventus also had their excuse after they won the Champions League against Liverpool in the Disaster of Heysel. Their excuse was that their focus was on the Champions League and not the league because this was a big deal at that time for Italian football that an underdog won and Juventus wasn’t even in the top 5.

Hellas Verona did the unthinkable and won the league and they lived happily ever after.

Except they didn’t live happily ever after, because they become bad afterwards and today they are a team in the second division. Maybe the fairytale does not end happily after all, but they got their trophy. Many Serie A fans believe this was the only Scudetto which was controversy-free and was fairly contested. Hellas Verona did something most clubs have never achieved.

The End