 Costacurta in 2011 | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alessandro Costacurta[1] | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 24 April 1966 | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Jerago con Orago, Italy | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[2] | |||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Defender | |||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||
| Asso | ||||||||||||||
| 1979–1986 | AC Milan | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1986–2007 | AC Milan | 458 | (3) | |||||||||||
| 1986–1987 | → Monza (loan) | 30 | (0) | |||||||||||
| Total | 488 | (3) | ||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1986–1990 | Italy U21 | 8 | (0) | |||||||||||
| 1991–1998 | Italy | 59 | (2) | |||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | AC Milan (technical assistant) | |||||||||||||
| 2008–2009 | Mantova | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Alessandro Costacurta (born 24 April 1966) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a defender.
Throughout his club career, Costacurta spent over twenty years with AC Milan between 1986 and 2007, as well as a brief season-long spell on loan at Monza. He is best known for his role alongside Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, and Mauro Tassotti, forming one of the greatest defences in Serie A and European football during the late 1980s and 1990s, under the success of managers Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello.[3] He mainly operated as a central defender, and was a leading exponent of the position, receiving International acclaim, winning 7 Serie A titles and 5 Champions League/European Cup trophies throughout his career, along with many other trophies.[4] Costacurta retired from professional football at the age of 41, on 19 May 2007. In his final match for Milan, he scored a goal from a penalty in a 3–2 defeat against Udinese, becoming the oldest goalscorer in Serie A a record that was broken by Zlatan Ibrahimović in 2023 who also scored from the spot against Udinese aged 41 five months and 15 days.[4][5]
Along with his Milan teammates, Costacurta was also an important member of the Italy national side during the 1990s. He made 59 appearances for Italy, scoring 2 goals, and he participated in two World Cups (in 1994 and 1998), as well as a European Championship in 1996. With Italy, he managed to reach the 1994 World Cup Final,[4] which was lost against Brazil on penalties.
- ^ "Comunicato Ufficiale N. 120" [Official Press Release No. 120] (PDF) (in Italian). Lega Serie A. 21 November 2006. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
- ^ "AC Milan - Sito Ufficiale". Archived from the original on 26 April 2003. Retrieved 26 April 2003.
- ^ "Addio al calcio giocato di Billy Costacurta" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- ^ a b c "Tanti auguri a Billy Costacurta, uno dei fondatori della patria". 24 April 2014. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- ^ "Milan sconfitto dall'Udinese Costacurta lascia con un gol". La Repubblica (in Italian). 19 May 2007. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2014.