Mauro Lustrinelli


Mauro "Lustri" Lustrinelli is a former professional Swiss footballer. He is also a former player of the Swiss national team. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration and wrote a thesis about the Italian Serie A.

Career

He started his professional career at the club AC Bellinzona in 1994 and played for them until 2001. Then he transferred to FC Wil and played there for the next three seasons before transferring to FC Thun in 2004. In 2005, he was the Swiss Super League's second highest goalscorer with 20 goals scored and also qualified with the club for the UEFA Champions League. In 2006, he signed for Sparta Prague but after one year at the club he returned to Switzerland and joined FC Luzern in order to play first team football leading up to UEFA EURO 2008 in Austria & Switzerland. After one season he returned 2008 to AC Bellinzona, where he started his career as a professional back in 1994.

International career

Lustrinelli made his debut for the Swiss national team on 17 August 2005 in a friendly match against Norway, having at that time won a total of six international caps for the team. He is also part of the Swiss team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany. On 19 June 2006, he was substituted in to play the last four minutes of the Swiss team's World Cup group match against Togo and after only one minute of playing he created the assist that allowed Tranquillo Barnetta to score the goal for the final 2–0 win for Switzerland, giving them a real chance of passing the group stage. The 2006 FIFA World Cup was his last appearance in the Swiss jersey. He was not selected for the UEFA Euro 2008.

Personal life

Lustrinelli is of Italian descent through his father, who is originally from Molise. Being originally from the northern part of Ticino, Lustrinelli grew up close to the referee Massimo Busacca who represented Switzerland at the FIFA World Cup 2006. Within their close friends in Ticino, Lustrinelli and Massimo are known as "twin brothers."
In Ticino, the Canton where Lustrinelli is originally from, after the great game against Togo a fanatical "Lustrimania" exploded. In some places, this fanaticism was expressed with such intensity that students, so-called "Lustrini", were prohibited from wearing Lustrinelli's national team shirt to school.

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