Giuseppe Meazza

Giuseppe Meazza
Personnel
birthday	August 23, 1910
place of birth	Milan ,  Italy
date of death	August 21, 1979
Place of death	Rapallo ,  Italy
size	169 cm
position	Center Forward
Juniors
Years	station
1924-1927	Inter Milan
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1927-1940	Inter Milan	348 (247)
1940-1942	AC Milan	37 00(9)
1942-1943	Juventus Turin	27 0(10)
1944	FC Varese	20 00(7)
1945-1946	Atalanta Bergamo	14 00(2)
1946-1947	Inter Milan	17 00(2)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1930-1939	Italy	53 0(33)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1945-1946	Atalanta Bergamo
1946-1948	Inter Milan
1948-1949	Beşiktaş Istanbul
1949-1951	Pro Patria Calcio
1952-1953	Italy
1955-1956	Inter Milan
1957	Inter Milan
1 Only league games are given.

Giuseppe Meazza (born August 23, 1910 in Milan , † August 21, 1979 in Rapallo ) was an Italian football player and coach .

The striker is one of the most successful and popular players in Italian football history and was world champion twice in a row with the national team ( 1934 and 1938 ). The importance of Meazza is shown by the fact that Milan's famous San Siro Stadium, home of Inter and AC Milan , was renamed the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium after his death in 1979 .

With 284 goals, Meazza is the record scorer of his long-time club Inter Milan and is in fourth place in the all-time list of top scorers in Serie A with 216 goals next to José Altafini . In the Nerazzurri jersey , he was three times Italian champion and three times top scorer in Serie A.

From 1952 to 1953 he was in charge of the Italian national team.

youth

The Meazzas family lived in simple circumstances in the Porta Vittoria district of Milan . Already at the age of seven the young Peppe had to cope with a hard blow of fate, as his father fell on the battlefields of the First World War and from then on he had to be raised by his mother Ersilia alone. Although Giuseppe helped her with the work in the fruit and vegetable market, the two always had to struggle for financial survival. He found solace in football, which would soon become his true calling. On the soccer fields and streets of his neighborhood he chased the balls barefoot for hours.

At the age of twelve he joined Gloria FC . There he played on a regular pitch for the first time and was even given a pair of soccer shoes. The talented Meazza soon did a trial at AC Milan but was turned down on the grounds that he was too thin. A little later the boy was discovered by chance while juggling a ball by a talent scout Inter Milan and accepted into the Nerazzurri youth department. By changing their diet, the youth coaches quickly compensated for Meazza's physical deficits. In addition, the former Inter player Fulvio Bernardini took care of the half-orphan and looked after him as a tutor.

Club career

In 1927 Meazza moved up to the squad of the professional team and made his debut on September 11 in the Italian championship against Milanese Unione Sportiva . In the 6-2 win, the 17-year-old young striker scored two goals and Gazzetta dello Sport praised the young player's intelligent, fresh appearance. Inter coach Árpád Weisz made him a regular player and took the established Leopoldo Conti out of the team, who gave Meazza the nickname il Balilla somewhat pejoratively . This developed into a real goal machine in its first season and scored an incredible 38 goals in 29 games. In the game against AC Venice (May 12, 1929) he scored six outstanding goals (final score 10: 2).

For the season 1929/30 the Italian championship was the first time in a national league system, the newly formed Serie A discharged. Ambrosiana-Inter became the first champion and Meazza became top scorer with 31 goals ( Capocannoniere ). Although completely unknown to the general public at a time when communications technology was still in its infancy, it didn't even take Meazza a whole season to become the Tifosi favorite all over Italy. As a brilliant ball technician, il Balilla fooled his opponents with daring tricks and feints, trying to find success through simple means, he was reluctant to use. However, after the first Scudetto there were no further titles, as Juventus Turin dominated Serie A and Ambrosiana-Inter had to be content with second place three times in the following years. It was not until the 1937/38 season that the Nerazzurri managed to win the championship again and superstar Meazza was again top scorer with 20 goals. Following the World Cup in 1938 , the star Meazzas began to decline because he was unable to play a game for almost a year and a half due to a protracted blood vessel disease in his right foot. In the championship season 1939/40 he did not play a single game.

After 13 years in the black and blue Inter shirt, Meazza announced his departure on November 28, 1940 and moved to city rivals AC Milan . However, despite the great rivalry between the two clubs, the Tifosi did not resent their idol and his popularity was not affected. Before the start of the Milan derby (February 9, 1941), Meazza is said to have cried in the dressing room because he had to play against his old club, but still scored the 2-2 equalizer. But gradually the Second World War hampered the regular operation of the Serie A and during the war championships from 1942 to 1946 Meazza wore the jerseys of Juventus Turin , AS Varese 1910 and Atalanta Bergamo .

In 1946, Inter Milan was sportily on the ground and was in a relegation battle. Those responsible brought the club icon back and Meazza acted in a double function as player- coach . Although he was by far no longer the exceptional player of earlier years, did not seem well-trained and overweight, but through his presence he managed to save the team from relegation. In his last season ( 1946/47 ) he played 17 games (two goals).

National team

After impressive performances early in his career, Meazza was quickly a candidate for the Italian national team . On February 9, 1930, the 19-year-old made his international debut against Switzerland (4-2) in Rome and celebrated a debut with two goals. National coach Vittorio Pozzo was completely convinced of the skills of the Milan star striker and then made him a regular player.

In 1934 Italy hosted the soccer world championship and the Squadra Azzurra was under enormous pressure as the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini expected nothing other than the world championship title. Meazza was now 23 years old, was in the prime of his career and was already an experienced player with 20 international appearances. National coach Pozzo was able to fill almost all positions twice, which is why he withdrew Meazza from the storm center and used it as a right half- forward. In the opening game against the USA he scored the 7-1 goal, but he scored his most important goal in the controversial replay against Spain when he got the redeeming 1-0 winner. In the final against Czechoslovakia , Meazza was injured after just a few minutes. Since there were no substitutions at that time, he had to bite his teeth and play through and the ailing superstar finally gave the template for the all-important 2-1 for Italy by Angelo Schiavio . The players had met the requirements of their duce and were celebrated frenetically across the country.

Five months later, the newly crowned world champion tried to "officially" confirm his title against England , which at that time refrained from participating in world championship tournaments. In the extremely hard and brutal game that went down in history as the Battle of Highbury , the English quickly led 3-0. But Meazza made one of the best games of his career and made a gala performance for the two connection goals to make it 3-2. The team as well as Meazza were then bid farewell by the English audience with appreciative, thunderous applause.

At the 1938 World Cup in France , Meazza was the only player left from the 1934 team, alongside Giovanni Ferrari , and led the Nazionale into the tournament as captain. As the reigning Italian champion and top scorer, he led the way with a broad chest and had set himself the goal of defending his title. In 1938 Meazza played an extremely helpful role for the team and was more of a template for center forward Silvio Piola than an enforcer himself. His only tournament goal, however, was the extremely important 2-0 in the semifinals against Brazil (2-1). After excellent performances, the Italians were once again in the final , where Hungary was defeated 4-2 on June 19. Italy and Meazza were world champions for the second time.

He played his last international match on July 20, 1939 in Helsinki against Finland (3-2). Meazza scored 33 goals in 53 games, making him the second best goalscorer in the national team behind Luigi Riva .

Style of play and character

Meazza was a formidable soccer artist. It has happened before that he stormed almost over the entire field with the ball at his foot, past the opposing defenders, only to stop his solo run just before the opposing goal and to lure the goalkeeper out of his box, just to get him to deceive with a final feint and to "walk" into the goal with the ball ( feint alla Meazza ). With this almost provocative way of scoring goals, he polarized the fans of his team and those of the opponent. In addition to his skills as a goalscorer, Meazza was also an excellent playmaker who dropped back into midfield over and over again in the course of a game to create opportunities. The two-footed dribbler was the first Italian footballer to achieve fame all over the world and for a long time represented the symbol of social success in Italy. In addition to his princely salary, which he received from Ambrosiana-Inter, he was one of the first advertising stars in Italian football and was able to come up with personal sponsors.

In addition to his footballing qualities, Meazza also knew how to draw attention to himself again and again in his private life. The playboy and womanizer never neglected even in crucial stages of his career, the sweet sides of being a soccer star. This is supported by his numerous women acquaintances, as well as his passion for champagne , gambling and expensive convertibles . His trademark became a white gardenia , which he wore behind his ear when dancing. In addition, he enjoyed some privileges and was the only national player who was allowed to smoke under the eyes of the strict Vittorio Pozzo.

“Having him on the team meant that you almost always took the lead 1-0. He was a born striker. Meazza was able to predict the following moves from every situation. Thanks to his game design and his excellent technical skills, he shaped the style of the entire attack series. "

- Vittorio Pozzo

successes

• Italian champion (3): 1929/30 , 1937/38 , 1939/40
• Coppa Italia : 1938/39
• Capocannoniere : 1929/30 (31 goals), 1935/36 (25 goals), 1937/38 (20 goals)
• World Champion : 1934 , 1938
• European National Team Cup : 1927 to 1930 , 1933 to 1935

As a trainer

After his brief stint as player-coach at Inter, Meazza left his home country to be one of the first Italians to work abroad. 1948/49 he worked for Beşiktaş Istanbul in Turkey , but returned after only one year in Serie A and looked after the team of Pro Patria Calcio .

For a year Meazza even looked after the national team , which was in a phase of rebuilding after the tragic plane crash of Superga . He trained twice as interim trainer at Inter Milan before moving to the junior division. Here he took on Sandro Mazzola , who had lost his father Valentino in the Superga plane crash, and introduced him to the professional squad. Mazzola would later become an Inter Milan legend himself.

End of life

Giuseppe Meazza died two days before his 69th birthday in his holiday home in Rapallo and was buried on Milan's Cimitero Monumentale .

In 1979, the year he died, the converted San Siro Stadium was renamed the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in his honor .

Web links

Commons : Giuseppe Meazza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Giuseppe Meazza in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Giuseppe Meazza