Bonini, Massimo

Club

Massimo Bonini began playing in the Juvenes Dogana youth team from San Marino. At the age of 18, he moved to Italy to play for the D-series club, Bellaria-Ijia-Marino. After playing 33 matches for the club, Bonini goes to the Forli series C club from the town of the same name. At the end of the season, he is seen in Cesena , which then played in series B, where Bonini leaves in 1979. The 1979/80 season, “Cesena” finished well, she went to Serie A, where the next year all of Italy found out about Bonini, the player was distinguished by intransigence in martial arts, physical strength and good speed. All these qualities did not hide from Juventus , who was looking for a replacement for veteran Giuseppe Furino , and in the summer of 1981 Bonini became a player of the Old Signora .

Bonini made his debut at Juventus on September 13, 1981 in a match against his former team, Cesena, and 3 days later he was already playing against the Scottish Celtic in the Champions Cup match . At the end of the season, Juventus took the 20th Scudetto , and Bonini became a solid player in the foundation of the club. A year later, Juve acquired Michel Platini , and Bonini's goal was to intercept the balls and transfer them to the Frenchman. At the end of the season, Juventus took second place and won the Italian Cup, and also reached the Champions Cup final. That year, Bonini won the Bravo Trophy for players under the age of 24. Many believe that Platini's exceptional fertility scoring is due to the fact that Bonini took over the entire defensive work of midfield. In Juventus Bonini won more football trophies than any of his compatriots, he became three times the champion of Italy, the owner of the Italian Cup, Cup of Cups, UEFA Super Cup, Champions Cup and Intercontinental Cup, victory in the last tournament allowed to become Bonini the only San Marino athlete (along with motorcycle racer Manuel Podzhali ) who won the official world competition.

In October 1988, after 296 matches for Juve (192 in Serie A), Bonini left for Bologna , which had just returned to Serie A. The player’s contribution was decisive for maintaining Bologna’s residence in the highest Italian division, and in next, to win a place that makes it possible to play in the UEFA Cup. In total for Bologna, Bonini spent 112 games in 4 seasons and scored 5 goals.

Team

Bonini first put on a T-shirt not in his native country, but in Italy, where he played for youth, since the San Marino Football Federation did not officially recognize UEFA, and UEFA considered the San Marino players to be Italian. Bonini could play for Italy, only forever giving up the San Marino citizenship, which the football player did not want and thus did not play for the first team of Italy. In 1990, UEFA officially recognized the football federation of San Marino and Bonini was able to play for his country, having spent 19 matches, some of which he had already played after finishing his club career.

In 2004, at the UEFA anniversary, the San Marino Football Federation was asked to choose the best football player in San Marino for the past 50 years. The choice of federation fell on Massimo Bonini, who thus became one of the UEFA Golden Players .

Juventus

• Champion of Italy (3) : 1981/82 , 1983/84 , 1985/86
• Italian Cup Winner: 1982/83
• Cup Winner: 1983/84
• European Super Cup Winner: 1984
• Champions Cup Winner: 1984/85
• Intercontinental Cup Winner: 1985

• National Football Teams profile
• Worldfootball.net profile
• Player profile on EU-Football.info
• Player profile on Transfermarkt