Franco Andreoli

Franco Andreoli (born December 2, 1915 - February 5, 2009 ) was a Swiss football player and coach who, as an active member of the Ticino FC Lugano club, won the national league championship twice in 1938 and 1941 .

Player career

Association until 1947

Via the youth stations Libertas and Elvezia, the middle runner came to the black and whites from the Stadio di Cornaredo and from 1935 belonged to the regular team of FC Lugano. After two years in midfield, he won the Swiss championship for the first time in the 1937/38 season with fellow strikers Lauro Amadò and Tullio Grassi, one point ahead of Grasshopper Club Zurich . This was followed by places three and six in the two following seasons, on November 12, 1939 in Zurich, his debut in the Swiss national football team , before Andreoli was able to celebrate his second title win with coach József Winkler with Lugano in 1940/41 . This time BSC Young Boys was relegated to second place with two points behind and center forward Alessandro Frigerio also took the top scorer's crown with 26 goals . In the 1942/43 round Andreoli and his teammates Mario Fornara , Arnoldo Ortelli and Alfonso Weber placed second behind the superior champions GCZ with Lugano and were also 1: 2 in the Cup final on April 26, 1943 in Bern -Defeat by GC prevented from winning the cup. In the rounds of 1944/45 and 1945/46, two more runners-up in the National League followed.

National team, 1939-1946

When Franco Andreoli made his debut in the Swiss national team on November 12, 1939, the outstanding player personality Sirio Vernati had previously played 28 international matches in a row from November 8, 1936 to June 4, 1939 in the "Nati" position in the middle and raised the bar on this central role. But the Ticino got off to a brilliant start. In Zurich, the reigning football world champion Italy - with Alfredo Foni , Pietro Rava , Miguel Andreolo - was defeated 3-1 goals and he had a future in the national dress. Also in the 1-1 draw on March 3, 1940 in Turin, Andreoli successfully organized the Helvetic defense against the Azzuris.

In the war spring 1941, on March 9 in Stuttgart and on April 20 in Bern, two international matches were played against Germany. Beat Jung notes:

“ The games against Germany and Italy served as a demonstration of friendly neighborly relations with two states with which extensive economic contacts were maintained during the war, but which were rejected by broad sections of the Swiss population as a threat to their own independence and their political systems were. "

In Stuttgart, the German team with the attacking line-up Franz Hanreiter , Wilhelm Hahnemann , Fritz Walter , Helmut Schön and Stanislaus Kobierski prevailed with 4-2 goals. The excellent goalie Erwin Ballabio prevented an even more pronounced defeat. Before the return match in Bern - the Herberger-Elf started with the complete attack series of the Stuttgart encounter - General Henri Guisan greeted the Swiss players individually with a handshake and underlined the psychological importance of the performances of the national team during the Second World War. Andreoli and his defensive colleagues Severino Minelli , August Lehmann , Albert Guinchard and Harry Winkler , together with the international class goalkeeper Ballabio, kept the DFB attack in check in Bern and through hits from Numa Monnard and Lauro Amado they achieved a frenetically acclaimed 2-1 win against Greater Germany. This defeat was particularly bitter for Germany, as it happened precisely on “Führer's” birthday.

After the end of the Second World War, the "ban bearer of Ticino football" played four more games in the "Nati" and ended his international playing career with the international match on May 25, 1946 in Glasgow against Scotland after a total of thirteen international appearances.

Trainer

Franco Andreoli was appointed by the SFV as a coach for the first football World Cup in Brazil in 1950 after the Second World War . After an exhausting journey, the first group game on June 25th in Belo Horizonte against Yugoslavia - with Ivica Horvat , Zlatko Čajkovski , Stjepan Bobek , Rajko Mitić , Kosta Tomašević , Bernard Vukas - was lost 3-0. The steadfast fighting spirit of the Confederates, tactical loyalty to the system and a certain arrogance on the part of the huge favorites Brazil, then brought the unexpected 2-2 draw after two goals by Jacques Fatton against the hosts three days later in Sao Paulo - with Barbosa, Juvenal, Baltazar, Ademir, Friaca - the world championship comes about. The defense of the Andreoli-Elf with goalkeeper Georges Stuber and the field players Andre Neury, Roger Bocquet, Gerhard Lusenti, Olivier Eggimann and Roger Quinche stood out in particular. The last group game on July 2 in Porto Alegre against Mexico was of no importance, Switzerland won 2-1 after goals from Rene Bader and Charles Antenen . Andreoli is quoted in Beat Jung's "Nati" book about the 1950 World Cup in Brazil with the following words:

“ The trip cost us a lot of energy: first stop in Madrid, then in Dakar, then twelve hours in Pernambucom to disinfect the plane from vermin, and finally in Rio in a hotel where it was impossible to sleep due to dancing and music. We didn't have a chance against Yugoslavia. But we won our World Cup in the game against Brazil. "

Next to the square

During his time as an active football player, Franco Andreoli was a regular commentator for Radio Monte Ceneri. Later he was head of the tax office of the city of Lugano.

literature

• Beat Jung (Ed.): The Nati. The history of the Swiss national football team. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89533-532-0 .
• Swiss Football League (Philippe Guggisberg), 75 years of the Swiss Football League, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9523556-0-2
• International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), Switzerland (1905–1940), international matches
• Lorenz Knieriem, Matthias Voigt: Football World Cup 1950 Brazil (= "AGON World Cup history." Vol. 4). AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2003, ISBN 3-89784-217-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beat Jung (Ed.), Die Nati, The History of the Swiss National Football Team, page 86
2. ↑ Beat Jung (Ed.), Die Nati, page 347