Giuliano Terraneo was born in Briosco, near Monza, on October 16, 1953.
He started playing football with the youth teams of Seregno but quickly moved to the bigger local club Monza. He did very well there, winning the Serie C Coppa Italia in 1974-75, and playing 21 league games in 1975-76 when Monza won their Serie C Group and got promoted to Serie B. The year after they almost made it to Serie A but faded towards the end of the season and missed out by just one point.
In 1977 he signed for Torino. The legendary granata goalkeeper Luciano Castellini was towards the end of his career and Terraneo took over during the course of the season. He debuted in Serie A on December 11 in the derby against Juventus. He stayed seven years in Turin making 193 league appearances.
In 1984 he moved to Milan. The Rossoneri had just been promoted in Serie A and needed experienced players to help build up the team. President Giuseppe Farina had invested heavily bringing back manager Nils Liedholm and investing in the new goalkeeper plus Roma legend Agostino DI Bartolomei, and forwards Pietro Paolo Virdis and Mark Hateley. They finished fifth. During the course of Terraneo’s second year with AC Milan the club changed hands and was purchased by Silvio Berlusconi. Milan finished seventh but Silvio had great ambition and there was no room for old timers.
Terraneo hence signed for Lazio. It was one of the most dramatic years in the club’s long history with first an unjust relegation decided by the sports authorities due to Claudio Vinazzani’s friendship with a chap who fixed matches. The relegation to Serie C was then changed to a 9-point docking. Lazio managed to recover but towards the end of the season collapsed and were able to go to a playoff with Campobasso and Taranto only thanks to a goal from Giuliano Fiorini with seven minutes to go against Vicenza. After losing the first match against the Apulians with a goal in blatant offside, Fabio Poli settled things in the game against Campobasso and Lazio managed to avoid Serie C.
Terraneo did not stay to fight for promotion however. He signed for Lecce in Serie B and helped them reach Serie A (Lazio were also promoted). He stayed another two years in Serie A in which Lecce managed to stay up.
When he finished playing, he became general director at Monza and in 1998 he returned to the capital as sporting director for Lazio. He stayed for just one year before moving to Milan and becoming technical director for Inter. His major signings for the Nerazzurri were Clarence Seedorf and Fabio Cannavaro.
In later years he collaborated with Arsene Wenger and Barcelona and between 2015 and 2016 was technical director at Fenerbahçe. In April 2018 he was briefly technical consultant for West Bromwich Albion.
Giuliano Terrano will forever be remembered as one of the heroic players that helped Lazio avoid relegation to Serie C in the -9 season. It is also thanks to him that we can still talk about Lazio today.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
1986-87 | 45 | 40 | 5 |
Sources
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