Pietro Vierchowod was born on 6 April 1959 in Calcinate. Widely considered one of the best Italian centre-backs during the 80s and 90s, he began his footballing career at Como, with whom he won back-to-back promotions from Serie C1 to Serie A. He then went on to play for Fiorentina, Roma, Sampdoria, Juventus, AC Milan and Piacenza, winning two Scudetti, four Coppa Italia titles, on Cup Winners’ Cup, on Italian Supercup and the Champions League. He made his Italy debut on 6 January 1981 at 21 years of age in a friendly against the Netherlands.

He was selected by head coach Enzo Bearzot as part of the World Cup winning squad at Spain 1982, though he didn’t feature on the pitch due to injury. He had an active role at the Mexico World Cup in 1986 and at Italia '90, winning a total of 45 caps for Italy and scoring twice. For many years, he held the record as Italy’s oldest ever goalscorer after scoring against Malta on 24 March 1993 at 33 years, 11 months and 18 days old. This was then beaten in 2008 by Christian Panucci.