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Ruggiero Rizzitelli (born 2 September 1967 in Margherita di Savoia, Barletta-Andria-Trani province) is a former Italian footballer.

Career

Clubs
Ruggiero Rizzitelli played for the junior teams of AC Cesena. From 1985, he was used by the professionals who played in the Serie B at that time. In 1987 he was promoted to Serie A with Cesena. In the 1987/88 season he was in all 30 games in the starting eleven and scored six goals. In 1988 he moved to AS Rom. It became his longest station in professional football, he remained there for six years. With Rome, he won the Coppa Italia in 1991 and, together with his assault partner Rudi Völler, became the king of scorers. In the same year he was with Rome in the final for the UEFA Cup 1990/91 against Inter Milan. In the second leg he scored the only goal to the 1-0 victory, as Inter (with the Germans Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann and Andreas Brehme as well as Rizzitelli's later coach Giovanni Trapattoni) had won the first leg 2-0, Inter became UEFA Cup winner. After three more years in Rome, Rizzitelli moved to FC Turin in 1994. There he scored in two seasons 30 goals in 60 league games, more than in his six years in Rome together. In the 1994/95 season, he scored two goals each against local rival Juventus Turin and thus contributed to the fact that FC Turin (for the first time since the 1975/76 season) won both the back and forth of the Derby della Mole. At the end of the following season 1995/96 FC Turin retired to Serie B.

For the 1996/97 season, Rizzitelli moved to the German Bundesliga for FC Bayern Munich. He was the first Italian football professional to move from Italy to the Bundesliga. He was coached in Munich by Giovanni Trapattoni, the first Italian coach in the Bundesliga. However, Rizzitelli was not the first Italian player in the Bundesliga, as Raffael Tonello had already played for Fortuna Düsseldorf in the 1995/96 season. Rizzitelli made his debut in the Bundesliga on 16 August 1996 (1st match day). He shot in the 35. Minute also his first goal for the interim compensation in the 2:1 success at FC St. Pauli. At the end of the season he became German champion. He played another season at FC Bayern and won the DFB Cup 1997/98 with his team. His last appearance in the Bundesliga was on 9. May 1998 (34th matchday) in the home game against Borussia Dortmund, which ended 4-0. After 45 league (12 goals), 5 DFB cup (1 goal), 6 European cup games and a league cup game for the Munich ended his two years playing abroad. Like his coach Trapattoni, Rizzitelli returned to Italy in the summer of 1998. He joined FC Piacenza. There he stood as a striker in the shadow of Simone Inzaghi, who made his breakthrough in Serie A this season. Rizzitelli was mainly used as a substitute and moved to Serie C1 in 2000