Iuliano Mark
Mark Iuliano was an Italian professional footballer who played as defender. Iuliano spent the bulk of his playing career with, Juventus, in the Serie A, a club with which he won several domestic and international trophies. At international level, he represented the Italy national football team at UEFA Euro 2000, reaching the final, and at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Regarded as one of the best and most consistent Italian defenders of his generation, Iuliano was a large, tenacious, and strong defender, who excelled in the air, and who was an accomplished man-marker and an experienced tackler; he usually played as a centre-back, although he was a versatile player, who was also capable of playing as a full-back.
Did you Know?
Mark Iuliano played the whole 1996/1997 season with the name “Juliano” on the back. The kitman before his first game with Juventus wrote his name wrongly on the shirt, but as long as the team won and the player played well, Mark didn’t want to change the name for the whole season.
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The season 1999-2000 started for Juventus with the Intertoto Cup in order to access to the Uefa Cup main tournament. The team won for the first time in its history the Cup, beating the french team of Rennes. For this competition the team used the shirt with SONY sponsor printed on a plastic strip ironed on the shirt. The reason was that the team’s supplier Kappa didn’t have ready yet the regular shirts, used during the Uefa Cup competition, with the sponsor as part of the fabric. The Intertoto Cup is played starting early July and it frequently happens that teams don’t get the full completed kits on time.
Did you Know?
The UEFA Intertoto Cup, also abbreviated as UI Cup and originally called the International Football Cup was a summer football competition for European clubs that had not qualified for one of the two major UEFA competitions, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. The competition was discontinued after the 2008 tournament. Teams who originally would have entered the Intertoto Cup now directly enter the qualifying stages of the UEFA Europa League from this point. The tournament was founded in 1961–62, but was only taken over by UEFA in 1995. Any club who wished to participate had to apply for entry, with the highest placed clubs (by league position in their domestic league) at the end of the season entering the competition. The club did not have to be ranked directly below the clubs which had qualified for another UEFA competition; if the club which was in that position did not apply, they would not be eligible to compete, with the place instead going to the club which did apply. The cup billed itself as providing both an opportunity for clubs who otherwise would not get the chance to enter the UEFA Cup and as an opportunity for sports lotteries (or pools) to continue during the summer. This reflects its background, which was as a tournament solely for football pools. In 1995, the tournament came under official UEFA sanctionin and UEFA Cup qualification places were granted. Initially, two were provided; this was increased to three after one year; but in 2006, it was again increased to the final total of 11.
Watch the Interoto Cup Final highlights against Rennes
Did you Know?
Regarded as one of the best and most consistent Italian defenders of his generation, Iuliano was a large, tenacious, and strong defender, who excelled in the air, and who was an accomplished man-marker and an experienced tackler; he usually played as a centre-back, although he was a versatile player, who was also capable of playing as a full-back.
Did you Know?
After greatly impressing in his second spell with Salernitana, Iuliano caught the eye of several major scouts, most notably those of Serie A giants Juventus F.C.. In July 1996, Iuliano transferred to the Torino based outfit, and was a big hit right from the start, as Juve continued their Serie A and European dominance. He made his Serie A début on 15 September 1996, 2–1 win over Cagliari Calcio. In his first season with Juventus he played in 21 league games scoring a single goal. Iuliano is also known for the episode involving Ronaldo where Inter claimed a penalty. Up to this day, newspapers cite this episode and in a recent interview to the newspaper “Il Tirreno” the referee, Piero Ceccarini, clarified, “From the images it is clear that Ronaldo runs into Iuliano, not vice versa: as a matter of fact, the Juventus player falls backwards, resulting from the impact of Ronaldo running into him. I was on the pitch, a few meters away. The intention of the defender was to stop the attacker’s progression, but the attacker moved the ball and the defender did not follow it. Iuliano was stationary at the moment of contact, there are no doubts about this. I told Pagliuca (Inter’s goalkeeper) that in basketball this would be an offensive foul. Perhaps I ought to have whistled a foul in favour of Juventus”. Iuliano would become an eventual starter for the club the following season, but was hampered by injuries in the 1999–2000 season, limiting him to just 20 appearances. Juventus had what was considered as the best defence in the world at this time, and teams strongly regretted ever going down a goal to the club, as they knew how hard it would be to score one back for themselves. Iuliano formed impressive defensive partnerships with the likes of Ciro Ferrara, Moreno Torricelli, Paolo Montero, Gianluca Pessotto, Lilian Thuram, Alessandro Birindelli, Igor Tudor, Gianluca Zambrotta, Nicola Legrottaglie, and Fabio Cannavaro during his 10-year tenure with the club. After the 2004–2005 Serie A triumph, veteran teammates Paolo Montero and Ciro Ferrara called it quits on their Juventus career (this title was later revoked following Juventus’s involvement in the 2006 Calciopoli scandal). The Uruguayan opted to return to his homeland, while Iuliano remained, but in January 2005, he left for La Liga side RCD Mallorca on free transfer after having not played regularly in the first portion season. Iuliano made well over 200 total appearances for i bianconeri, scoring nearly 15 goals. During his time at Juventus, Iuliano won 4 Serie A titles, an Intercontinental Cup, an UEFA Supercup and three Italian Supercups, also reaching three UEFA Champions League finals (in 1997, 1998, and 2003) and two Coppa Italia finals (in 2002 and 2004).
Did you Know?
Iuliano was a regular in the Italy national football team setup during the peak of his career as he earned his first call-up in 1998 and received his last cap in 2003. He appeared for the Italy national football team at UEFA Euro 2000, where Italy finished in 2nd place, and in the FIFA World Cup 2002. He would make 19 total international appearances, scoring one goal for his country. His début came on 5 September 1998 against Wales. He scored his only international goal against Portugal on 26 April 2000.
