Eddie Firmani

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Eddie Firmani
Personnel
Surname Edwing Roland Firmani
birthday August 7, 1933
place of birth Cape Town ,  South Africa
position striker
Juniors
Years station
1949-1950 Clyde FC
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1950-1955 Charlton Athletic 100 (50)
1955-1958 Sampdoria Genoa 83 (52)
1958-1961 Inter Milan 82 (48)
1961-1963 CFC genoa 62 (25)
1963-1965 Charlton Athletic 55 (32)
1965-1967 Southend United 55 (24)
1967-1968 Charlton Athletic 10 0(6)
1975 Tampa Bay rowdies 1 0(0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1956-1958 Italy 3 0(2)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1967-1970 Charlton Athletic
1975-1977 Tampa Bay rowdies
1977-1979 New York Cosmos
1980 Philadelphia Fury
1980-1982 Montreal Manic
1983-1984 New York Cosmos
1985-1990 Kazma SC
1991-1992 Montreal Supra
1992-1993 Sur club
1993 Montreal Impact
1996 New York / New Jersey MetroStars
1 Only league games are given.

Edward "Eddie" Roland Firmani (born August 7, 1933 in Cape Town ) is a former Italian - South African football player and coach .

Career as a player

The Italo-South African Eddie Firmani began his career as a professional footballer in 1950 in London with Charlton Athletic , a club that at the time often hired football players from South Africa , e. B. also his younger brother Peter . Between 1951 and 1955 he scored 50 goals in 100 top division games for the Londoners. In June 1955 he was appointed to the London city selection (" London XI ") and defeated with this in the Messestädte-Pokal 1955-1958 in Basel the selection there 5-0, to which he contributed a hit.

In 1955 he moved to Serie A at Sampdoria Genoa . The Italians transferred £ 35,000 for it, which at the time was the highest transfer fee ever paid to an English club. During his time at Sampdoria, Firmani, who had Italian ancestors and was thus an Oriundo , also played three times for the Italian national team between 1956 and 1958, scoring one goal each against Switzerland and Austria in games for the European championship forerunner Gerö Cup . Another game, against Northern Ireland, was part of the failed qualification for the 1958 World Cup.

After three seasons he moved to Inter Milan , where he came third twice and fourth once in Serie A. In 1959 he also reached the cup final , which in Rome went 1: 4 against Juventus in the pants. In the first round of the Messestädte Cup 1958-1960 he scored four goals in a 7-0 win against Olympique Lyon. The end came in the semifinals against FC Barcelona with 0: 4 and 2: 4. In the 1960/61 competition , Inter penetrated this time, also with victories of 8: 2 and 6: 1 over Hannover 96, into the semi-finals, where Birmingham City eliminated the mailender trained by Helenio Herrera with two 2: 1 wins . In total, he scored ten goals in ten games in the trade fair cup for Inter.

Then Firmani joined the second division CFC Genoa with whom he rose there in the first season and remained in the first division for two more seasons with the Genoese.

In 1963 he returned for a fee of now £ 17,500 to Charlton Athletic, since 1957 only a second division club. In 1964 he was with the club, which in the preseason just missed the descent fourth, but in 1965 only 18th of 22 clubs. He then moved to the third division Southend United with whom he was initially 12th, but was relegated in 1967 as 19th. That season Firmani was the team's top scorer from the Thames estuary ; he scored 20 of Southend's 54 goals.

Firmani was successful as a goal scorer in all of his stations and to this day he is the only player who has scored more than 100 league goals in both England and Italy, although only 50 for Charlton in the first division of England in the 1950s .

Career as a coach

Firmani was player-manager during his final season as a player at Charlton Athletic . He then looked after the club for two more seasons. He finished 15th, 3rd and 20th out of 22 teams each.

In 1967 he returned to Charlton once more, serving as player-coach in the first season. He stood up ten more times and scored sixth goals. In the table, Charlton was at the end of the season in 15th place among 22 teams.

In 1975 he moved to the North American Soccer League (NASL) for the Tampa Bay Rowdies , with whom he won the title in his first year. In the same year he also appeared as a player for the last time. In 1976 he was named "Coach of the Year", in 1977 he moved to the New York Cosmos , where he won two other league titles and looked after Pelé , Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto , among others . After an argument with Giorgio Chinaglia Firmani left New York and hired at Philadelphia Fury , a team that moved to Canada shortly afterwards and also played in the NASL under the name Montreal Manic . This was followed by another, short-term engagement with the New York Cosmos, before Firmani moved to the Arab region as a trainer.

Firmani signed on as a coach at Kazma SC in Kuwait , where he won the championship twice and the Emir Cup once in five years. After Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in the course of the Second Gulf War , Firmani was held hostage by the Iraqis for three months. He described this period as a "traumatic experience" as he witnessed killings in the streets and explosions around Dasman Palace.

In 1991 Firmani became a trainer and manager at Montreal Supra before coaching the Sur Club in Oman . This was followed by two engagements as a trainer at Montreal Impact and the New York / New Jersey MetroStars before Firmani retired as a trainer.

literature

  • Eddie Firmani: Football with the Millionaires , Stanley Paul, London, 1959.

Web links

Notes & individual references

  1. ↑ The British pound was worth around 11.50 German marks back then and into the 1960s
  2. ↑ a b : Sports People: Soccer; Firmani Named . The New York Times , February 8, 1991, accessed October 27, 2016.
  3. ↑ Cosmo's ex-coach Is Freed by Iraqis . The New York Times , November 12, 1990, accessed October 27, 2016.

literature

  • Eddie Firmani: Football with the Millionaires , Stanley Paul, London, 1959.
personal data
SURNAME Firmani, Eddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Firmani, Edwing Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian-South African soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town , South Africa