Lorenzo Amoruso

Infobox Football biography
playername = Lorenzo Amoruso


fullname = Lorenzo Pier Luigi Amoruso
nickname =
height = Height|m=1.81
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1971|6|28
cityofbirth = Bari
countryofbirth = Italy
currentclub =
clubnumber =
position = Defender
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1988–1995
1991–1992
1992–1993
1995–1997
1997–2003
2003–2006
2008–
clubs = Bari
→ Mantova (loan)
→ Pescara (loan)
Fiorentina
Rangers
Blackburn Rovers
S.S. Cosmos
caps(goals) = 075 0(8)
013 0(1)
019 0(1)
054 0(3)
149 (13)
018 0(3)
000 0(0)
nationalyears =
nationalteam = Italy U-21
nationalcaps(goals) = 002 0(0)

Lorenzo Pier Luigi Amoruso (born June 28, 1971 in Bari, Italy) is an Italian football defender currently playing for Sammarinese team S.S. Cosmos best known for his six year spell with Glasgow side Rangers.

Career

Prior to coming to Scotland, he played for Italian clubs Bari, Mantova, Pescara, and AC Fiorentina, where he won the Italian Cup in 1996, as well as reaching the 1997 UEFA Cup Winners Cup semi-finals, losing out to the eventual champions FC Barcelona.

Amoruso signed for Rangers on May 29, 1997 for a fee of £4million. Whilst with the club he won the Scottish Premier League on three separate seasons, as well as the Scottish Cup four times and the Scottish League Cup three times. He was installed captain of Rangers by Dick Advocaat in 1998 - a surprising move for many considering that Advocaat had brought the captain of his previous club, Arthur Numan, to Glasgow with him. However Amoruso clashed with the manager several times, resulting in an eventually aborted move to Sunderland. Advocaat began to sign defenders to replace Amoruso, Bert Konterman for example and also Paul Ritchie, but the Italian remained first choice.

In the 2000–01 season with Rangers having a poor start and the defence in particular having a horrendous run of form, Advocaat was alreading thinking about changes. When the club crashed out of the UEFA Champions League to AS Monaco because of a bad mistake by Amoruso, he was stripped of the captaincy - it instead went to the 22 year-old Barry Ferguson.

After Advocaat's removal as manager, Amoruso rediscovered his form under new boss Alex McLeish and won the 2002 Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year. He scored the winning goal in his final game for Rangers - the 2003 Scottish Cup final - and wept as he left the pitch. He still commands hero status with the Ibrox support.

Amoruso left Rangers in July 2003 to make a £1.4m move to Blackburn, [Cite news
title = Blackburn sign Amoruso
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/2997588.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2003-07-14
accessdate = 2008-04-13] who wanted him as a replacement for Henning Berg. The sale was forced by Rangers' large debts. [Cite news
title = Rangers could lose Ferguson
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3150791.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2003-08-15
accessdate = 2008-04-13] His Blackburn debut came on August 16, 2003. On the pitch for the full ninety minutes, his place in the team was justified as he scored the opening goal after 17 minutes. In October, a knee injury kept him out of the game for five months, which, coming at the end of a run of bad form, was somewhat of a boost. As he returned and came into the team on a regular basis, he and they regained their form. His 2004–05 season was marred by regular injuries and he did not play any part of the 2005–06 season. He was released by Rovers in the summer of 2006.

In January 2008, Amoruso came out of retirement to sign for S.S. Cosmos on a part-time basis.cite news|url=http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=658233.html|title=Cosmos starstruck by Amoruso arrival|publisher=UEFA website|date=February 14, 2008]

Honours

With Rangers
*Scottish Premier League: 1998-99, 1999-00, 2002-03
*Scottish Cup: 1998-99, 2001-02, 2002-03
*Scottish League Cup: 1998-99, 2001-02, 2002-03

References

External links

*soccerbase|id=11069|name=Lorenzo Amoruso

Persondata
NAME=Amoruso, Lorenzo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH=June 28, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH=Bari, Italy
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=