William Garbutt

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William Garbutt
Garbutt.JPG
Personnel
Surname William Thomas Garbutt
birthday January 9, 1883
place of birth Stockport ,  England
date of death February 24, 1964
Place of death Warwick ,  England
position Right winger
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1903-1906 Reading FC
1906-1908 Woolwich Arsenal 52 0(8)
1908-1911 Blackburn Rovers 82 (10)
1911-1912 Woolwich Arsenal 0 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1912-1927 CFC genoa
1927-1929 AS Roma
1929-1935 SSC Naples
1935-1936 Athletic Bilbao
1936-1937 AC Milan
1937-1940 CFC genoa
1946-1948 CFC genoa
1 Only league games are given.

William Thomas Garbutt (born January 9, 1883 in Hazel Grove , Stockport , † February 24, 1964 in Warwick ) was an English football player and coach . He is considered the "father of Italian football".

His years as a player

William Garbutt came from a poor family with many children. To get out of this situation, he joined the Royal Artillery , where he also began playing football. He later played for the club Woolwich Arsenal (now Arsenal FC ) and the Blackburn Rovers (1908-1912). Due to injuries, he had to give up football at the age of 29. To support his family, he then moved to Genoa with his pregnant girlfriend to work in the port.

Garbutt as a trainer in Italy and Spain

In the same year - 1912 - Garbutt was offered a position as coach of the Genovese club Genoa Cricket and Football Club (CFC Genoa); how it came about that he was signed without any experience as a coach is not exactly known. One version is that Italian coach Vittorio Pozzo recommended him after seeing Garbutt play while in England. Garbutt placed great emphasis on the physical fitness of the players, an aspect that was novel at the time. In 1915, as well as in 1923 and 1924 , the CFC team under Garbutt became Italian football champions. During the First World War , the trainer went to Great Britain to serve as a soldier, but then returned to Italy.

In 1927, William Garbutt moved to the newly founded club AS Rom as the first professional manager in football. He stayed there for two years, during which the club won the Coppa Coni  - the forerunner of today's Coppa Italia  - and in 1929 took third place on the Italian football team. He then took over SSC Napoli for seven years. He led the team from third to first division; In 1932/33 she was fourth, 1933/34 third and 1934/35 seventh in the Italian football championship. During his time in Naples, he adopted Maria, an Italian orphan girl . He and his wife had a son, Stuart.

In 1935 Garbutt went to Spain to work as a coach at Athletic Bilbao ; In 1936 this team became Spanish champions , two points ahead of Madrid FC , today's Real Madrid . Because of the Spanish Civil War , his engagement there ended after two years. He returned to Italy, took over AC Milan for a year and finally switched back to CFC Genoa .

After the coaching career

During the Second World War , as an Englishman, Garbutt ran into problems in Italy and even had to go into hiding with his family for a while. In 1944 his wife was killed - tragically by the Allies - in a bombing raid . After the war, the CFC Genoa offered him a job as a “ scout ” out of gratitude for his services to the club so that his livelihood was secured. In 1951 he returned to England, where he died in 1964. While the news of his death was barely noticed in England, it met with great resonance in Italy and Spain, where Garbutt is considered a "legend".

The first "Mister"

Garbutt was simply called "Mister" by his players in Italy. For this reason, it is said, Italian soccer players still refer to their coaches as "Mister".

literature

In 2009 the English author Paul Edgerton published a biography of Garbutt, which was created with the support of his Italian adoptive daughter Maria.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ English players in Italy on rsssf.com (English)
  2. ↑ Allenatori Roma: William Garbutt, il primo “Mister” on lasignoraingiallorosso.it (Italian)
personal data
SURNAME Garbutt, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Garbutt, William Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Hazel Grove , Stockport
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 1964
Place of death Warwick