MILAN – Pierino Prati, long center forward of Milan , then of Rome and also of the Italian national football team died today.
ANSA learns it from AC Milan sources.
Prati was 73 years old.
Born in Cinisello Balsamo in 1946, he won the 1968 European Championship with the national team and was a finalist in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, of which yesterday was the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Brazil-Italy final.
Raised in the AC Milan youth team, he won a league title in the Rossoneri, 2 Italian cup, 2 Cup of Cups, 1 European Cup (with hat-trick in the final), 1 Intercontinental Cup.
With Roma he played 110 games and scored 41 goals.
Pierino Prati's disappearance came a few days after that of another great Italian footballer, Mario Corso.
From Mario Corso to Pierino Prati, Italian football loses the great champions of the past.
"Mario Corso was the only footballer that Pele would have declaredly wanted in his Brazil: this was to make young people understand the extent of my friend's class".
Massimo Moratti on the phone with ANSA is moved by the memory:
“He was my favorite at Grande Inter, but my father loved him too, and he always stayed close to our family.
Superfine technique, game in counter-time, the so-called 'dead leaf' punishments – concludes Moratti – it was a pleasure to see him play … ".
"It was a footballer who made my generation dream. But I lost a friend, one of the most beautiful people that life has made me meet ": so the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala on Twitter (source ANSA).
Source: Blitz Quotidiano