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Bruno Cirillo has stood out like a rock in FC Pune City’s defence. The 37-year-old Italian began his club career at Reggina for whom he went on to play regular first team football. Turning out for multiple clubs in Italy - most famously Inter Milan - he established himself as a regular in Greek football with AEK Athens with whom he finished as runners-up in the league in consecutive seasons.
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His journey brought him to India this year where he became the first pick of the international players’ draft of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) for Pune. Under his influence, Pune started the league campaign with three wins from six games. But since then, the wins have dried up and after a brief run that saw them move up to fourth on the table, they now find themselves in seventh position.
Pune have the potential, considering they handed Atletico de Kolkata their first loss of the tournament, and even held them at home in the return fixture. “I think if we can play with this strength, then we are not scared of anybody. We are a team that plays with good touch and good power. So if we can continue to play like this, we have a good chance to make it to the semis,” Cirillo said after the Kolkata tie.
An Under-21 Euro winner with Italy, Cirillo appears to be a father figure for Indian defenders Dharmaraj Ravanan, Anupam Sarkar and Pritam Kotal. “I believe the team will improve. Every match is always difficult. I think it’s my philosophy to give respect to all players,” said Pune coach Franco Colomba.
Cirillo and Pune come up against the same side that beat them 5-0 in only the second match of the season. Both teams have had mixed fortunes since, and coach Colomba feels the need to weed out the slip-ups completely in order to keep their campaign alive. “We keep speaking continuously of how to eliminate mistakes. But it is not always possible to avoid it in every game. A lot of goals are born out of mistakes,” he said. With only three matches remaining and qualifying for the knockouts at stake, Pune need Cirillo’s experience to overcome their bogey team, Mumbai City FC.
