Aristide Guarneri

A refined Italian stopper, Aristide Guarneri gave Helenio Herrera’s Grande Inter the kind of defensive certainty that made the whole machine feel almost unfair. Tough in the tackle but famously clean, he was known as a gentleman of the game, a rare label for a man whose job was to erase centre-forwards for a living. He excelled through anticipation, marking and positional sense, forming a perfect contrast with Armando Picchi, who swept behind him as the libero. Guarneri was not a brutal destroyer, despite the role, but an elegant and precise defender who preferred timing to violence and intelligence to panic. With Inter, he won European Cups, Serie A titles and Intercontinental Cups, while also becoming European champion with Italy in 1968. A classic stopper, yes, but with class, discipline and a suspicious absence of nonsense.