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Mauro Tassotti (born in Rome January 19, 1960), is an Italian former Football (soccer) player. He played at right back but could also fill in at centre back if required. He was a renowned hard-man in the mould of the toughest and most infamous of all international defenders, Claudio Gentile, and Tassotti earned many yellow and red cards during his career.

At club level Tassotti was part of AC Milan's legendary and all-conquering team of the late 80's and early 90's. In fact he wore the red and black colors of Milan from 1980 to 1997. During the team's peak Tassotti was a key component of a stunningly mean defence, playing alongside other greats Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, and Alessandro Costacurta.He won the European Cup with the club in 1989, 1990 and 1994.

For Italy Tassotti did not win his first cap until the age of 32 under Sacchi. This is partly because of an abundance of other world class Italian defenders at the time but also because national coach Azeglio Vicini somewhat inexplicably did not fancy Tassotti, despite his world class performances for Milan.

Tassotti played in one World Cup, the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA. In the quarter final against Spain he viciously elbowed Luis Enrique in the face and was banned for eight games. The elbowing was so bad that Enrique reportedly lost a pint of blood from his face as a result. Tassotti did not play for the Italian national team after that. But perhaps more importantly Tassotti missed out on Italy's subsequent games in the tournament versus Bulgaria in the semi-final, and then Brazil in the Final itself.

He is now AC Milan's assistant coach, under Carlo Ancelotti.

	Italy squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup Runners-up
1 Pagliuca | 2 Apolloni | 3 Benarrivo | 4 Costacurta | 5 Maldini | 6 Baresi | 7 Minotti | 8 Mussi | 9 Tassotti | 10 R. Baggio | 11 Albertini | 12 Marchegiani | 13 D. Baggio | 14 Berti | 15 Conte | 16 Donadoni | 17 Evani | 18 Casiraghi | 19 Massaro | 20 Signori | 21 Zola | 22 Bucci | Coach: Sacchi

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