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Udinese Calcio had its best season since the days of Zico in the club during the 1980s. With goal scoring trio Oliver Bierhoff, Márcio Amoroso and Paolo Poggi on top form, Udinese finished fifth, even troubling the top three in the standings. Bierhoff and Poggi scored 13 goals each, while Amoroso hit the back of the net on 12 occasions. Despite the sensational results, coach Alberto Zaccheroni remained at the small club, while 1997–98 looked set to become a further improvement for Udinese.
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Massimo Margiotta was a professional Italian-Venezuelan footballer who played as a forward. He moved to Udinese in the summer 1999 and he made his debut against Juventus on September 19th. He played for Udinese for two season playing 38 games and scoring 7 goals. He mostly played during the Uefa Cup games scoring some important goals like two goals against Bayer Leverkusen that allow Udinese to pass the round after the 0-1 home defeat. He also scored against Sigma Olomuc during the Intertoto Final.
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Born in Venezuela, Margiotta played for Italy at youth level and at Football at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2004 FIFA changed its rules to allow a footballer switch nation to be represented if he had multi-nationality. Originally targeted for player aged under 21, that year also accept any player to apply. Margiotta switched to Venezuela as he might have no chance to play for Italy. He collected 11 caps, 4 of them were friendlies.
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In the season 2002-2003 an authentic football star arrived in Udine. Carsten Jancker arrived from Bayern Munich where he played from 1996 to 2002. It was definitely the best period of his career, a spell which included four Bundesliga titles and victory in the 2001 UEFA Champions League. At Bayern, Jancker was partnered with the Brazilian inside-forward Giovane Élber, often rated as one of the Bundesliga’s best attacking players. He arrived in Udine in 2002 but the move was not a success; over two seasons and 35 games, the forward registered only two goals. Jancker was said to be “too slow and predictable for Serie A” by one Italian football website. In 2004, Jancker returned to Germany with Kaiserslautern and showed a slight improvement in form, netting five times in 25 games.
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A reliable and commanding goalkeeper, known for his leadership from the back and vocal presence on the pitch, in his prime, De Sanctis was known in particular for his shot-stopping ability, positioning, handling, and speed when rushing off his line, and is regarded as one of the best Italian goalkeepers of his generation; he was also adept at stopping penalties.