Enzo Scifo Profile

Enzo Scifo - Info

Name:	Enzo Scifo
Date of Birth:	19th February 1966
Nationality:	Belgium
Position(s):	Attacking Midfielder
Career:	1983 to 2001
Regular Shirt Number(s):	4 (Anderlecht), 10
Nickname(s):	None

Enzo Scifo - Career

We're not sure if it's because every time he played against a British side, be it for Belgium or club-level, he seemed to have an absolute stormer, but Enzo Scifo was one of our favourite players from the 1980s and 1990s.

However, despite all of Scifo's great attacking attributes, there's still a school of thought that Scifo's club career didn't quite amount to what it should have done. A great start to his professional career had seen him instrumental in helping Anderlecht win the Belgian Championship three times in his first four seasons, whilst at international level the 20 year-old Scifo started every single match as Belgium reached the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup and he was named as the Young Player of the tournament. So it was no real suprise to see one of the wealthy Serie A clubs make a move for one of Europe's hottest prospects when Inter signed him in 1987 for 7.5 billion Lira. However, the 21 year-old Scifo struggled to live up to the expectations at the San Siro and the following summer Inter got the chance to sign German duo Lothar Matthäus and Andy Brehme. Serie A were moving to a three foreign-players limit but Inter also wanted Argentinian striker Ramón Díaz in their squad so decided to move Scifo on after just one season, selling him to French club Bordeaux.

At first it looked like a great move to kickstart his club career again, Scifo put in some exceptional performances as Les Girondins started the campaign well. However, injuries and disagreements with some of the club's established players and staff lead to another single-season transfer, this time to Auxerre. Luckily, this particular French club did prove to be a good fit for the Belgian, as their legendary manager Guy Roux helped to rebuild Scifo's confidence and get his career back on track again. Roux built the team around Scifo's playmaking qualities, playing him as the offensive tip of a three-man midfield, with Waldemar Matysik and Raphaël Guerreiro providing a solid base behind him. He ended the decade on a real high, spending two seasons in Burgundy with Auxerre, helping the club to finish in a highly respectable sixth place after his first season, and then a fantastic third place in the second season. Scifo had managed to re-establish his reputation at club-level and once more the Serie A clubs were knocking on his door wanting to tempt him back to Italy.

Enzo Scifo - Career in Brief

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Enzo Scifo - Playing Style

Enzo Scifo was a midfield playmaker who seemingly had a bit of everything to his attacking game. He was equally adept at playing in an advanced attacking midfield role, on the right, or further back as a deep-lying playmaker, dictating the tempo of his team's play. It goes without saying that his passing was one of his strongest assets, be it his short game, linking up play and stitching moves together, or his precision on his cross-field balls or deeper passes to start quick counter-attacking moves. Scifo was fantastic carrying the ball too, his dribbling and darting runs proving a constant menace for the opposition. And to top it all, Scifo knew where the back of the net was. He may not have scored as many free-kicks as others in this list, but he was deadly in open-play from around the edge of the box, his trademark goals were often low drilled shots arrowing low into the corner of the net.