This Week In Lazio History: June 15-21 | OneFootball

The week of June 15-21 in Lazio history is characterised by Lazio-Vicenza and Giuliano Fiorini’s goal seven minutes from time plus several promotions. We also remember Igor Protti.

Matches of the Week

Date: Sunday, June 16, 1963 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Pro Patria 2-0 Lazio beat Pro Patria and are promoted to Serie A

Date: Sunday, June 18, 1972 Venue: Stadio della Vittoria, Bari Fixture: Bari Lazio 0-0 Lazio collect the necessary point and return to Serie A after just one season.

Date: Sunday, June 18, 1989 Venue: Stadio Flaminio, Rome Fixture: Lazio Sampdoria 1-0 Lazio beat distracted Sampdoria to boost survival hopes

Date: Sunday, June 19, 1988 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Taranto 3-1 Lazio beat Taranto and after three years make it back to Serie A.

Date: Saturday, June 21, 1958 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Roma Lazio 2-3, Coppa Italia A thrilling game rewards the Biancocelesti who edge nearer qualification to the Coppa Italia quarterfinals.

Match In Focus

Date: Sunday, June 21, 1987 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Vicenza 1-0

There were seven minutes to go and Lazio were virtually in Serie C.

The Biancocelesti had been given an unjust nine-point docking at the beginning of the season all due to a vague reply on the phone from Claudio Vinazzani. He had arrived in 1983 after many years at Napoli and when asked by a friend whether he wanted to “arrange” a couple of wins for Lazio his answer was non-committal. Nothing else happened, but the club were de facto relegated because of this. An overzealous journalist then spilt the beans before it was official and the punishment was changed to a -9 start in the following season. One must remember that at the time there were still only two points for victory.

Manager Eugenio Fascetti had told the players “This is the situation. You can leave, and it would be perfectly normal if you did, or stay and fight. Decide”. All the players stayed.

Lazio did so well that at one point they were closer to the promotion race than the relegation battle, but in the second half of the season, the stress took its toll and the team started to lose ground. With one match to go Cagliari were already in Serie C, Lazio and Taranto were on 31 points, and Campobasso, Sambenedettese, Vicenza and Catania on 32. Last games of the season Bari-Sambenedettese, Messina-Campobasso, Taranto-Genoa, Cesena-Catania, Lazio-Vicenza.

Even a win may not be enough.

With Lazio in Serie C, would the new ownership of the club continue, or would they throw in the towel? Probably the latter.

The game meant life or death for Lazio and the fans filled the Stadio Olimpico a long time before kick-off. When the players came out two hours before the start, they could not believe their eyes. The Olimpico was packed. Everybody had brought a flag or a scarf and the Stadium was completely light blue and white.

The Biancocelesti played their best game of the season creating numerous chances, but Vicenza goalkeeper Ennio Dal Bianco played the match of his life and saved everything, even the air. With seven minutes to go, it was still 0-0. Then the Gods who support Lazio did their magic.

In the 83rd minute, Antonio Acerbis with a throw-in, ball to Fabio Poli back to Acerbis, cross into the box cleared by the defence. Vincenzo Esposito to Gabriele Podavini on the right who tried the 200th shot of the day. He miskicked it and it became a low cross. Giuliano Fiorini got the ball, spun around and shot. Goallllllllllll!!!!!!!!

Delirium!!! Tears of relief, some fans literally felt ill and collapsed. Medics were called. Legend has it that people on the nearby bridge on the Tiber felt the earth shake. Neutral commentators suddenly became hardcore fans and burst into tears. Vicenza did not have anything left and the game finished 1-0 for Lazio.

Final verdict: Vicenza, Catania and Cagliari in Serie C, Lazio, Campobasso and Taranto to a playoff. It was not over yet.

In Memory: Igor Protti

This week we lost Igor Protti. He was, together with Dario Hubner, is the only player to have been top season scorer for Serie A, Serie B and Serie C1. A remarkable feat.

Protti was born in Rimini on September 24, 1967 and started his footballing career in the youth teams of his hometown. He debuted professionally at 16 playing in C1. When he turned 18 he signed for Livorno still in C1 and stayed there for three years. He played quite a lot of games (83) but only started scoring regularly in his third year with 14 goals in all competitions. In 1988-89 he was loaned to Virescit Bergamo and had another positive season scoring 10 goals. In 1989 he signed for Messina in Serie B and scored 31 goals in three years.

His next step was an important one, he signed for Bari. They were in Serie B but after two years the Apulia side was promoted to Serie A. In his first three years he did not score much (22 goals in 79 league games) but in 1995-‘96 he finally exploded scoring 24 goals in Serie A, top scorer together with Beppe Signori.

Lazio President Sergio Cragnotti dreamed of putting these two players together, thinking that it would rain goals under manager Zdenek Zeman, so Protti joined Lazio, helped also by the fact that despite all of his goals Bari had been relegated to Serie B. Unfortunately it was not a good year for the Biancocelesti and half way through Zeman was replaced by Dino Zoff. He did score seven goals, including a last second goal against Roma in a derby with Lazio behind, but it was difficult to find the right equilibrium up front with Signori and Pierluigi Casiraghi. With the arrival of Sven-Goran Eriksson in 1997, as well as the return of Alen Boksic plus the signing of Roberto Mancini, Protti was loaned to Napoli in Serie A to get some playing time. It was a terrible year for the Neapolitan team who arrived bottom with just 14 points. He returned briefly to Lazio but with the addition of Marcelo Salas he found very little space so he was loaned out again, this time to Reggiana in Serie B. Alas another relegation.

In 1999-00 he returned to Livorno in Serie C1. The year after he was top scorer in Serie C1, a feat he repeated in 2001-02 and the Amaranto were promoted to Serie B, returning to the second tier after 31 years. In 2002-03 he was top scorer in Serie B. In 2002-04, Livorno arrived third and were promoted to Serie A, 54 years after the last time they played in the top tier. He scored 24 goals that season. He stayed one more year and Livorno managed to avoid relegation. He scored six league goals and at the end of the season decided to retire.

After he stopped playing he continued to work in football, first with Tuttocuoio (San Miniato-Pisa) and then back at Livorno as club manager. When the club went bust, he worked for the new Livorno team until 2022-23.

In June 2025 he announced he had cancer. He made a visibly emotional appearance at the Livorno Stadium for Livorno Ternana in August.

He died on June 19, 2026.

Protti was an incredible goal scorer. Not particularly tall, 1.71 metres, but he could be lethal in the penalty box. He scored 248 goals in his career and it was a pity that he arrived at Lazio in the wrong year.

Birthdays This Week