Tarcisio Burgnich was born on 25 April 1939 in Ruda, a small village in the province of Udine. His impressive physical characteristics took him to the Udinese youth system to develop further, and he made his Serie A debut for the club on 2 June 1959 having just turned 20.

He would later wear the shirts of Juventus, Palermo, Inter (for twelve years) and Napoli. In total, he won the Scudetto five times, the European Cup twice, the Intercontinental Cup twice, the Coppa Italia once and the Anglo-Italian Cup once. He earned 66 Italy caps and scored two international goals. One of these was a historic goal at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico: he found the net to make it 2-2 against West Germany in the semi-final that went down in history as the ‘Game of the Century’. He was part of the Italy side that won the 1968 European Championship on home soil, featuring in every match.

Alongside Giacinto Facchetti (also teammates at Inter), he was part of the legendary defensive partnership that lined up at three World Cups from 1966 to 1974. Out of his 66 Azzurri appearances, 58 of them came alongside his inseparable defensive partner.