Oliviero Garlini was called by Lazio fans Boom Boom Garlini because he often scored braces (Boom Boom being a pun taken from the nickname of the boxer Ray Boom Boom Mancini). He was a good centre-forward and scored some spectacular goals for Lazio in his second year.
Born in Stezzano on March 4 1957, Garlini started his professional career in Como in serie A in 1975-76 but a year later he was sold to Empoli in Serie C. Despite scoring a lot of goals, his career never really took off, at least initially. After a year at Empoli, he played two years for Nocerina, contributing to their promotion into Serie B, and a year at Fano in Serie C1.
Garlini then started to play for Cesena where he found some stability and stayed four years. Cesena got promoted in his first year and in Serie A he became the attacking partner of Walter Schachner.
Lazio signed him for the 1984-85 season, which was a very negative one, but despite being behind Giordano and Laudrup in the attacking ranking he still managed to play a number of games even though he scored just one goal. The next year he was in Serie B but in the centre of the attack. Despite another annus horribilis for Lazio, he was top goal scorer for Serie B with 18 goals.
Lazio had very little money and needed to cash in, so they sold him to Inter. He played one year for the Nerazzurri (and scored against Roma!!!) before going back to Serie B with Atalanta and helping them win promotion in Serie A with 17 goals.
His last four years of football at Ancona, Atalanta, Ascoli and Ravenna saw him score less and less and he finally quit professional football in 1991.
Garlini then became manager and worked with the youth teams of Dalmine from 2004 to 2011.
In 1999 he was called by his friend Alessandro Altobelli to be team manager of Padova. But had to resign following a dramatic mistake. In the match between Padova and Varese in Serie C1, with Padova wining 2-0, the Manager Adriano Fedele called for the substitution of the only under-21 player left on the pitch. The problem was that the rules for Serie C1 that year indicated that at least one under-21 player had to be on the pitch at all time. The substitution cost them the game and the lost points cost them relegation. Garlini theoretically was in charge so he was the guy who had to resign.
Garlini played 67 games for Lazio (20 in Serie A, 38 in Serie B and 9 in Coppa Italia) and scored 19 goals (1 in Serie A and 18 in Serie B).
Lazio Career
Season | Total | Serie A | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
1984-85 | 24 (1) | 20 (1) | - | 4 |
1985-86 | 43 (18) | - | 38 (18) | 5 |
Total | 67 (19) | 20 (1) | 38 (18) | 9 |
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