Claudio Ranieri - football manager

Title-winning Leicester City boss is 65 today

Claudio Ranieri

Football manager Claudio Ranieri was born on this day in 1951 in Rome.

Ranieri, who won the English Premier League last season with rank outsiders Leicester City, has managed 14 clubs in four countries in a 30-year career in coaching.  He also had a stint in charge of the Greece national team.

Among the teams he has coached are a host of big names - Internazionale, Juventus, Roma, Napoli and Fiorentina in Italy, Atletico Madrid and Valencia in Spain, Monaco in France and Chelsea in England.

He has won titles in lower divisions as well as Italy's Coppa Italia and the Copa del Rey in Spain but until Leicester defied pre-season odds of 5,000-1 to win the Premier League, a major league championship had eluded him.  He had finished second three times, with Chelsea, Roma and Monaco.

Before turning to coaching, Ranieri was a player for 14 seasons. He began in Serie A with home-town club Roma, but enjoyed more success in the lower divisions, enjoying promotion twice with the Calabrian club Catanzaro, where he spent the biggest part of his career, and once each with the Sicilian teams Catania and Palermo.

Ranieri was born in the San Saba district of Rome, not far from the ancient Baths of Caracalla and Circus Maximus in an area teeming with Roman ruins.  His father, Mario, was a butcher in neighbouring Testaccio, one of Rome's traditional working class neighbourhoods. His mother, Renata, now 96, still lives in Rome and Claudio regularly flies home to see her.

Where Testaccio, now increasingly popular with Rome's young professionals, was designed and built with blue collar workers in mind, San Saba is more middle-class historically, an area of houses rather than apartment buildings, with more urban green spaces such as the Piazza Gian Lorenzo Bernini, where Claudio and his friends would play football.

Claudio Ranieri celebrates with Leicester City's
prolific striker Jamie Vardy

Ranieri's early life was spent largely confined to these two neighbourhoods and nearby Aventine Hill, which affords panoramic views of the city.

A Roma fan for as long as he can remember, Ranieri dreamed of playing for the giallorossi and after being spotted by a scout he realised his ambition. He was taken on for a trial, given a contract and made his debut in November 1973 as a defender.  He was unfazed by playing in front of 80,000 fans and continuing to help out in the family business on his day off kept him grounded.

Sadly, the dream did not turn into a place in Roma folklore, as the young Ranieri might have hoped.  By the following summer, having made just six appearances, it was clear he was not going to be in the team on a regular basis and he moved to the deep south of Italy to Catanzaro, in the part of Calabria that sits in the arch of the boot on the map of Italy, to play in Serie B.

It was a world away from the frenzied pace of Roman life and Ranieri felt a little like an alien but the eight years he spent there shaped his life in many ways.

Catanzaro's team included many outsiders and they formed a bond of friendship that remains strong to this day. Indeed, until recently, the team's goalkeeper, Giorgio Pellizzaro, was Ranieri's specialist goalkeeping coach.

They became a good team on the field, too, winning promotion to Serie A twice in his time there, the second time staying for five years.

Off the field, it was while playing for Catanzaro that Ranieri met his wife, Rosanna, the daughter of a football journalist.  The couple had a daughter, Claudia and bought a villa at nearby Copanello, overlooking the Ionian Sea, where they still spend their summers. Ranieri also has a house at Formello, a town about 30km north of Rome in the Monti Sabatini area of Lazio.

Ranieri's son-in-law, the actor
Alessandro Roja

Claudia is now married to the Roman actor, Alessandro Roja, who starred in the drama series Romanzo Criminale, set in the Rome underworld in the 1970s.  Rosanna runs two antiques shops in Rome.

Ranieri's character, well-mannered, good humoured, calm under pressure, is said by some to be more typically Calabrian than Roman but, as the Italian writer Gabriele Marcotti explains in an excellent biography - Hail, Claudio! - to be published next month, there is a steel behind the charm.

An example came when he had left Catanzaro for Catania, where he was made captain.  When the manager, the former Catanzaro player Gianni di Marzio, was sacked after Catania, newly promoted, had made a poor start in Serie A, Ranieri was so furious he stormed into the office of the club president to make his feelings known, and repeated them in a television interview soon afterwards.

He was sure he would be sacked as well for speaking his mind and effectively humiliating the president, an autocratic millionaire not known for his patience. Instead, after recovering from the shock, the president decided that if Ranieri was man enough to stand up to him in that way he was too good an asset to lose.

UPDATE: Since leaving Leicester City in 2017, Ranieri has increased the number of coaching positions he has held to 21. As of his 72nd birthday on October 20, 2023, he was in charge of Serie A club Cagliari for the second time in his career.

The original structure of the Basilica of Santa
Sabina dates back to the fifth century

Travel tip:

The Aventine Hill, which Ranieri knew well as a boy, has many attractions, apart from the ruins of the Roman chariot racing stadium, Circus Maximus, and the Baths of Caracalla.  The historic Basilica of Santa Sabina, which dates back to the fifth century, is just one of several notable churches, while the area's elevated position offers outstanding views of the Rome, particularly from the Giardino degli Aranci (Garden of Oranges), overlooking the Tiber. A more unusual view is to be had from the Villa del Priorato di Malta, on Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, where crowds gather to peer through the keyhole in the wooden doors at the main gate, which provides a perfectly framed view of the dome of St Peter's Basilica.

The waterfront at Catanzaro Lido, which can be 
found 15km (9 miles) from the city of Catanzaro

Travel tip:

Occupying a position 300mt (980ft) above the Gulf of Squillace, Catanzaro is known as the City of the Two Seas because, from some vantage points, it is possible to see the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north of the long peninsula occupied by Calabria as well as the Ionian Sea to the south.  The historic centre, which sits at the highest point of the city, includes a 16th century cathedral built on the site of a 12th century Norman cathedral which, despite being virtually destroyed by bombing in 1943, has been impressively restored.  The city is about 15km (9 miles) from Catanzaro Lido, which has a long white beach typical of the Gulf of Squillace.

More reading:

Internazionale - how the Milan football team was founded

Fabio Capello - veteran manager won Serie A five times

Italy's World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi

Roman ruins inspired Gibbon's epic Decline and Fall

Books:

Hail, Claudio! The Man, The Manager, The Miracle, by Gabriele Marcotti (Yellow Jersey)

(Photo of Alessandro Roja by Laura Penna CC BY 2.0)
(Photo of the view from the Giardino degli Aranci by Marten253 CC BY-SA 3.0)



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Marco Tardelli - footballer

Joyous celebration lasting image of Italy's 1982 World Cup win

Marco Tardelli loses himself in his joy
after scoring in the 1982 World Cup final

Marco Tardelli, the footballer whose ecstatic celebration after scoring a goal in the final became one of the abiding images of Italy's victory in the 1982 World Cup, was born on this day in 1954.

The midfield player, who spent much of his club career with one of the best Juventus teams of all time, ran to the Italian bench after his goal against West Germany gave the Azzurri a 2-0 lead, clenching both fists in front of his chest, tears flowing as he shook his head from side to side and repeatedly shouted "Gol! Gol!" in what became known as the Tardelli Scream.

Italy went on to complete a 3-1 win over the Germans in the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid with Paolo Rossi and Antonio Altobelli scoring Italy's other goals.  Tardelli, who was part of Italy's squad for three World Cups, had earlier scored against Argentina in the second group phase.

Tardelli later said that he felt he "was born with that scream inside me" and its release was sparked by the sheer joy at realising a dream he had nurtured since he was a child, of scoring in the final of a World Cup.

It meant that when he retired as a player in 1988 he could look back on winning international football's greatest prize as well as every competition in which he participated in club football.

During his career with Juventus, whom he joined in 1975 and left after 11 seasons, the Turin team won the Scudetto - the Serie A title - five times, the Coppa Italia twice, plus the UEFA Cup, the Cup-Winners' Cup and the European Cup, as well as the UEFA Super Cup.

Relive Marco Tardelli's goal and celebration from the 1982 World Cup final

He and his Juventus team-mates Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea were the first three players in football history to have collected winners' medals for all three major European club competitions.  His goal in the first leg of the 1977 UEFA Cup final against Athletic Bilbao helped Juventus win their first European title.

Tardelli was born in the tiny village of Capanne di Careggine, in the mountainous Garfagnana area of northern Tuscany.  The village has between 500 and 600 residents.

He began his career with Pisa, then in Serie C, moved next to Serie B club Como and joined Juventus in 1975.  He went on to play 376 matches for Juventus, scoring 51 goals, before moving to Internazionale in 1985, spending two seasons in Milan before completing his playing career with a season in Switzerland, playing for St Gallen.

Called up for the national team in 1976, he won 81 international caps and scored six goals, captaining his country between 1983 and 1985.

During an era when Italian football was heavily defensive, Tardelli stood out for his versatility, a hard-tackling yet technically skilful and elegant defensive midfielder, with an ability to contribute in attack too.  He could play anywhere in midfield or defence but was also blessed with accurate passing ability with both feet and a powerful shot.

Tactically intelligent, it was inevitable he would move into coaching.  Indeed, he was hired by the Italian Football Federation as soon as he retired as a player.

Appointed as head coach of the Under-16 Italian national team in 1988, he quickly graduated to assistant Under-21 coach under Cesare Maldini before trying his hand in club football with Como, with whom he won promotion to Serie B.

Marco Tardelli and Giovanni Trapattoni during their time
in charge of the Republic of Ireland national team

After a stint with another Serie B team, Cesena, he returned to the Federation and head coach of the Italian Under-21 team, winning the European Under-21 Championship and reaching the quarter-finals at the 2000 Olympics.

His return to club football with Internazionale ended after one season, a string of embarrassing defeats culminating in a 6-0 defeat to local rivals AC Milan. Tardelli was fired in June 2001 and spells with Bari, the Egyptian national team and Arezzo brought no success.

He then spent five years working alongside Giovanni Trapattoni as assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland national team.  The pair took the Irish team to the finals of Euro 2012 but were dismissed after failing to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and Tardelli has worked largely as a pundit since then. He has recently published an autobiography, Tutto o niente: La mia storia (All or Nothing: My Story).

The Church of San Pietro in Careggine

Travel tip:

Careggine stands on a plateau offering stunning views of the strikingly beautiful Monte Pisanino and the valley it overlooks. The parish Church of St Peter, founded in 720, still conserves parts of its original medieval structure, including the bell tower, despite damage suffered in an earthquake in 1920.

Travel tip:

The Garfagnana is the mountainous area around the Serchio valley north of the walled city of Lucca.  Its heavy annual rainfall means that the lower mountain slopes have a lush covering of dense woodland, mainly sweet chestnut trees.  The main towns are Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, home to the impressive Rocca Ariostesca (Ariosto's Castle), and Barga, which is famous for its annual opera and jazz festivals. Barga was once dubbed "the most Scottish town in Italy" because its surrounding countryside bears similarities with the Scottish Highlands and has twinned with no fewer than four towns in Scotland.

More reading

Paolo Rossi's World Cup hat-trick marks redemption

Marcello Lippi - World Cup winning coach

A fourth World Cup for the Azzurri

(Photo of Marco Tardelli and Trapattoni by Michael Cranewitter CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Photo of Careggine church by Davide Papalini CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Genoa Cricket and Football Club

Italy's historic first football club

The Genoa team that won Italy's first national
football championship in 1898

Italy's oldest surviving football club was founded on this day in 1893 in Genoa.

Originally named Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club, it was established by British Consular officials and for a number of years football was a minor activity.  Initially, Italians could not be members.

Football became more its focus after an English maritime doctor, James Spensley, arrived in Genoa in 1897 and organised a match against Football Club Torinese, which had been formed in Turin in 1894. Spensley insisted the club's rules be altered to allow Italians to play.

The match took place in January 1898 and although the attendance was only around 200 spectators, it was deemed a success by those who took part, particularly the Turin side, who won.  After a return match, plans were drawn up to form an Italian Football Federation and to organise a first Italian Championship.

Genoa were the inaugural champions, although only four teams took part and the competition was completed in the course of one day, in May, at the Velodromo Umberto I in Turin.   Spensley's team beat Internazionale of Milan in the final.

Genoa Cricket and Football Club has played at the
Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911

Nonetheless, in the statistical record books the 1898 title carries no less weight than the 2016 version, which involved 20 teams playing 38 matches each over a period of nine months.

Genoa, who responded to winning the 1898 title by changing their name to Genoa Cricket and Football Club, dropping athletics from the title, and went on to win again four times in the next five years, usually with Spensley in goal.  They also took part in the first organised international match when they played a friendly against Nice in 1903.

In all they have been Italian champions nine times, although their last success was in 1923-24.

The club's English heritage is celebrated by supporters, who often display banners in English.  Although forced by the ruling Fascists to change the club name to an Italianised Genova 1893 Circolo del Calcio in 1928, they reverted to Genoa Cricket and Football Club in 1945 and still go under that name today.

Spensley's part in the heritage of the Ligurian port city is recognised with a plaque on the wall of the house where he lived.

Originally based in the Campasso district of Genoa, they have played since 1911 at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, the oldest Italian football ground still staging professional football.  The stadium has been shared since 1946 with Genoa's much younger neighbours, Sampdoria.

Travel tip:

Genoa, wedged between the Ligurian Sea and the Apennine mountains, is a colourful port city. There is much to enjoy about the city's vibrant character as well as many outstanding buildings, such as the Romanesque Cathedral of San Lorenzo, with its black-and-white-striped façade and frescoed interior.

The bronze fountain that forms the centrepiece of
the Piazza de Ferrari in Genoa

Travel tip:

Genoa's Piazza de Ferrari, as well as being renowned for its bronze fountain, is surrounded by the headquarters of a number of banks, reflecting the status the city enjoyed at the end of the 19th century as Italy's financial centre, alongside Milan.  The Teatro Carlo Felice opera house is another nearby attraction.

(Photo of Piazza de Ferrari by Twice25/Rinina25 CC BY-SA 2.5)
(Photo of Stadio Luigi Ferraris by Gabriel Rinaldi CC BY-SA 4.0)

More reading:

Tough backdrop to Italy's first football championship

Meeting in a restaurant led to formation of Internazionale

Giuseppe Meazza - Italian football's first superstar

Books:

Calcio: A History of Italian Football, by John Foot

Forza: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football, by Paddy Agnew

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Giuseppe Meazza - Italy's first superstar

Inter striker who gave his name to the San Siro stadium

Giuseppe Meazza's matinée idol looks
led him to be likened to Rudolph Valentino

Italian football's first superstar, the prolific goalscorer Giuseppe Meazza, died on this day in 1969, two days before what would have been his 69th birthday.

Most biographical accounts of his life say Meazza was staying at his holiday villa in Rapallo, on the coast of Liguria, when he passed away but John Foot, the Italian football historian, says he died in Monza, much closer to his home city of Milan.

Meazza, who was equally effective playing as a conventional centre forward or as a number 10, spent much of his career with Internazionale, the Milan club for whom he scored a staggering 243 league goals in 365 appearances.

In the later stages of his career he left Inter after suffering a serious injury, initially joining arch rivals AC Milan.  A year after his death, the civic authorities in Milan announced that the stadium shared by the two clubs in the San Siro district of the city would be renamed Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in his honour.

Born in the Porta Vittoria area of Milan, not far from the centre, Meazza had a tough upbringing.  His father was killed in the First World War when Giuseppe was only seven.  He was a rather sickly child and was sent to an 'open-air' school in the city - one of a number that sprang up across Europe to combat the spread of tuberculosis - in the hope his health would improve.

Like most young boys, he played football games in the street and it is said he developed his skills by playing barefoot. His mother needed him to help on the family fruit and vegetable stall and hid his shoes in the hope he would not be able to play. He was 12 before he was allowed to join an organised team.

Giuseppe Meazza made his Inter debut
as a 17-year-old 

His talent was brought to the attention of AC Milan when he was 13 but they rejected him as too skinny.  However, an Inter scout saw him juggling a rag ball in the street near his home and after a trial he was quickly signed up, the club deciding if they fed him well he would grow stronger.

Their faith paid off.  After scoring twice on his debut as a 17-year-old, Meazza went on to be Inter's leading scorer season after season.

Inevitably he was selected for Italy's national team and established himself as a key member of the side that won two World Cups under manager Vittorio Pozzo in 1934 and 1938, the second time as captain. In 53 appearances for the Azzurri, he scored 33 times.   He was a natural goalscorer, particularly when faced with the opposition goalkeeper one-on-one, when he would almost always come out on top.

Although stocky and somewhat short, he was blessed with good looks and found himself adopted as a poster boy for Mussolini's Fascists, who saw him as a symbol of manliness and athleticism.  His early nickname 'il Balilla' was a reference to Mussolini's youth movement.

He made the most of his fame, which won him advertising contracts for toothpaste and the brilliantine he applied liberally to his hair, which gave him something of a Rudolph Valentino look.  He had an apartment in the centre of Milan not far from Inter's former home at the Arena Civica, drove expensive sports cars and was never short of female company.

He left Inter after suffering a blood clot in his left leg in the 1938-39 season, after which he was never the same player, although he managed to extend his career by another seven years, playing for AC Milan, Juventus, Varese and Atalanta before returning to Inter for one final season.

Meazza's tomb at the Monumental Cemetery in Milan

On retirement, he starred as himself in a movie and then went into coaching.  He was not so successful in this role as he had been as a player but did oversee the development of some fine youth players at Inter, including Sandro Mazzola, who also played number 10 for Italy, and the defender Giacinto Facchetti.

No stranger to Milan's nightlife, he did not help his health in retirement by smoking heavily.  He remained fêted wherever he went but tired of celebrity towards the end of his life, when he wanted his declining health to be kept secret and requested shortly before he died that his funeral should be a small, private affair and that there should even be no headstone.

He was buried at the Monumental Cemetery in Milan, where his grave is marked, but simply with his name and his dates.

Travel tip:

Porta Vittoria has a special significance in Italian history.  Formerly known as Porta Tosa, the eastern gate in the old Spanish Walls of Milan, it was the first strategic position to be taken by the Milanese rebels during the so-called Five Days of Milan (Cinque Giornate di Milano) in 1848, during the First Italian War of Independence, in which the Austrians were driven out of the city.  The gate was demolished in the late 19th century and an obelisk erected in its place in what is now the Piazza Cinque Giornate.

The Castello sul Mare at Rapallo

Travel tip:

Rapallo, where Meazza spent his holidays, is a resort on the Ligurian coast between Chiavari and the jet-set haunt of Portofino.  It has a pretty harbour and lush hillsides dotted with villas rise from the sea.  Also notable, right on the very seafront, is the Castello sul Mare - the castle on the sea - built in 1551 to counter frequent pirate attacks.

More reading:

Internazionale - how the club began in 1908

Ulisse Stacchini - the man who built the original San Siro



(Castello sul Mare picture by RegentsPark CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Meazza's tomb picture by batrace CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Gianni Rivera - footballer and politician

Milan legend served in the Italian Parliament and as MEP

Gianni Rivera, idol of AC Milan fans
for almost two decades

Gianni Rivera, a footballer regarded as one of Italy's all-time greats, was born on this day in 1943 in Alessandria, a city in Piedmont some 90km east of Turin and a similar distance south-west of Milan.

Rivera played for 19 years for AC Milan, winning an array of trophies that included the Italian championship three times, the Italian Cup four times, two European Cup-Winners' Cups and two European Cups.

He won 63 caps for the Italian national team, playing in four World Cups, including the 1970 tournament in Mexico, when Italy reached the final.

Later in life, he entered politics, sitting in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament from 1987 to 2001 and serving as a Member of the European Parliament from 2005 to 2009.

Rivera had a tough upbringing in Alessandria, which suffered heavy bombing during the later stages of the Second World War, with hundreds of residents killed.  His family were not wealthy but Rivera found distraction playing football with his friends in the street and it was obvious at an early age that he had talent.

His father, a railway mechanic, arranged for him to have a trial with the local football club when he was 13 and he was quickly taken on as a youth team player.   The club, US Alessandria, competes in the semi-professional Lega Pro nowadays but was a much grander concern as Rivera was growing up and when he made his senior debut in 1959, aged just 15 years and 288 days, it was in a top-flight Serie A match against Internazionale.

He was the second youngest player in Serie A history.  By the age of 17, Rivera had been sold to AC Milan for 90 million lire.

Small and slight, Rivera had to win over his critics, some of whom decried him as a 'luxury' player in that he was never one for the physical side of football.  Gianni Brera, one of Italy's foremost football writers, dubbed him abatino - literally 'little abbot' - and did not intend it as a compliment.

Rivera (right) with his international team-mate
and rival in club football, Sandro Mazzola

Yet Rivera's intelligence and imagination, first as a winger and in time as a classical 'number 10', playing just behind the forwards, enabled him to score and create goals in abundance.

Rivera helped Milan win the 1962 scudetto - the Serie A title - when he was only 18 and when the rossoneri became the first Italian club to win the European Cup a year later, beating Benfica 2-1 at Wembley, it was Rivera who set up both Milan's goals for José Altafini.

In his international career, Rivera was a member of the Italy team that won the European Championships on home soil in 1968 and scored the winning goal in an epic semi-final against West Germany in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico as the Italians triumphed 4-3.

This was the tournament in which Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italy's coach, could not decide between Rivera and the similarly gifted Sandro Mazzola as his playmaker and ended up reaching a bizarre compromise that he termed the staffetta - 'relay' - in which Rivera, captain of AC Milan, and Mazzola, captain of their fierce city rivals Internazionale, would play one half each, with Rivera often coming on at half-time.

It worked effectively in the quarter-finals, when Italy overwhelmed the hosts Mexico 4-1 with three goals in the second half, and against the Germans, when Rivera's influence in extra time was decisive, although Valcareggi abandoned the policy in the final, with Rivera kept on the bench until the final six minutes, by which time the brilliant Brazilians were well on their way to a 4-1 win.

Rivera played his last match for Milan in 1979, retiring after 658 club appearances, having scored 164 goals.  As with many outstanding club servants in Italian football, he was given what was assumed would be a job for life with the rossoneri, who made him a vice-president.

Gianni Rivera in his days as
a politician 

All that changed, however, when Silvio Berlusconi bought the club in 1986. Rivera and the future Italian Prime Minister were diametrically opposed politically.  The former player made outspoken comments about the controversial Berlusconi's involvement, as a politician of the right, in what was traditionally regarded as the club of Milan's working class, after which he was stripped of his status as vice-president and had his right to match tickets withdrawn.  Not surprisingly, Rivera resigned.

It was soon afterwards that he stood for election to the Italian Parliament, initially winning election as a centrist but moving to the centre-left.  As a member of the Italian Renewal movement set up by former Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, he served in the Olive Tree coalition led by Romano Prodi that defeated Berlusconi in 1996.  For a while, Rivera was under-secretary of state for defence.

After his stint as an MEP, Rivera returned to football in 2013, appointed by the Italian Federation as President of the Technical Sector, overseeing the training and qualification of coaches.

The Cittadella di Alessandria, viewed from the air

Travel tip:

Alessandria is notable among other things for the Cittadella di Alessandria, a star-shaped hexagonal fortress built in the 18th century when the city was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.  Situated just outside the city across the Tanaro River and surrounded by a wide moat linked to the river, it covers more than 180 acres and is one of the best preserved fortifications of its type.  It remained a military establishment until as recently as 2007 and now holds a permanent exhibition of about 1500 uniforms, weapons and memorabilia.

Travel tip:

Milan is the most populous metropolitan area in Italy and the fifth largest in Europe with an urban population of around 5.5 million.  It is the wealthiest city in Italy with the third largest economy in Europe after London and Paris.  Its many notable tourist attractions include the magnificent Gothic cathedral, the Sforza Castle and Leonardo da Vinci's mural painting of The Last Supper, in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie.

More reading:

Altafini's history-making moment

Paolo Rossi's World Cup hat-trick

Fourth World Cup for the azzurri

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Ulisse Stacchini - architect

Designer behind two famous Milan landmarks

Ulisse Stacchini

Ulisse Stacchini, the architect who designed two of Milan's most famous 20th century landmarks, was born on this day in 1871 in Florence.

A champion of Liberty style Art Nouveau designs, Stacchini's defining work was the gargantuan Stazione di Milano Centrale - the city's main railway terminal.

He also designed the stadium that evolved into the city's iconic Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, joint home of Milan's two major football clubs, Internazionale and AC Milan.

Stacchini studied in Rome and moved to Milan soon after graduating, setting up a partnership with the engineer Giulio de Capitani, building houses, offices and shops for private clients

Among his early projects was the Savini Caffè in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  His style can be seen in a number of town houses commissioned by wealthy patrons, including Via Gioberti 1 at Via Revere 7, which feature linear designs.

He became involved with the Milano Centrale project when he won a design competition in 1912, although construction was delayed by more than a decade because of the crisis in the Italian economy that followed the First World War.

This 1964 photo of  Milano Centrale illustrates the
enormous size of the building

The project gained momentum only after Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister, with consequences for Stacchini's designs.  It was originally modelled on the Union Station in Washington but Mussolini wanted the new station to represent the power of the Fascist regime and encouraged Stacchini to create a majestic building that would have a huge presence.

To some critics, the end result was an incongruous mix of Liberty, Art Deco and classical features, adorned with numerous sculptures, yet it was impressive for its sheer scale.  Its façade spans 660 feet (200mt) and is 90 feet (27mt) high with three enormous porticos, each almost 30 feet (9mt) wide and 53 feet (16mt) high. It dominates the Piazza Duca D'Aosta.

It was while the station project was under way that Piero Pirelli, the president of AC Milan, commissioned Stacchini to design a new stadium for the club on a site in the San Siro district of the city.

Stacchini's original stadium bore little resemblance to the instantly recognisable structure of today, with its 11 cylindrical towers, three tiers of seats and a vast roof, but was impressive at the time, consisting of two grandstands, one of which was partially covered, and two end terraces, with a capacity of 35,000.  The first match there was staged in September 1926, a friendly between AC Milan and rivals Internazionale that the latter won 6-3.

It underwent several expansions and reconstructions and became home to both Milan clubs in 1945.  It was named after the footballer Giuseppe Meazza in part because he played for both AC Milan and Inter. He spent much the larger part of his career with Inter, however, hence AC Milan fans prefer to describe the stadium as the San Siro.

Stacchini went on to design many more buildings, especially for the banking sector, before spending the latter part of his working life teaching architecture at the Milan Polytechnic.  He died in Sanremo, Liguria, in 1947, aged 75.

Travel tip:

Milano Centrale has 24 platforms and handles about 320,000 passengers per day, using approximately 500 trains. The station is a major hub on the north-south route between Bologna and Salerno and also has trains running daily to international destinations including Bern, Lugano, Geneva, Zürich, Paris, Vienna, Barcelona and Munich.

The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza today

Travel tip:

The new M5 metro line has made access to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza easy to reach, with a new station (San Siro Stadio) situated directly outside the ground.  The line does not pass directly through the city centre but travellers using line M1 can change at Lotto, or at Garibaldi on line M2.   The Line 16 tram still runs from west of Piazza Duomo to the stadium, where the route terminates.  The journey by metro takes about 20 minutes, by tram half an hour.

(Old photo of Milano Centrale by Albertomos CC BY-SA 3.0)

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José João Altafini - footballer who made history

Forward tamed Eusebio to give Italy first European Cup

José João Altafini

Supporters of AC Milan took to the streets to celebrate on this day in 1963 after José João Altafini's goals secured an historic victory in the European Cup.

Milan beat Benfica at Wembley Stadium in London to become the first Italian team to win the trophy.

Until then the European Cup had been dominated by Real Madrid, who were champions for five years in a row after the competition was launched in 1955-56, with the great Eusebio's Benfica winning in 1961 and 1962.

At half-time at Wembley in 1963, Milan looked set to provide another near-miss story for Italy, trailing to a Eusebio goal as Benfica closed on a third successive title.

The Rossoneri had lost to Real Madrid five years earlier, 12 months after the Spanish giants brushed aside Fiorentina in the final.

But 24-year-old Altafini, who became one of Serie A’s most prolific all-time goalscorers, refused to be cowed.

He netted in the 58th and 66th minutes, sparking joyous scenes in Milan and starting a period of European dominance for the city, with AC’s rivals Internazionale winning the next two tournaments.

The Milan team that night in London boasted two future Italy managers in Cesare Maldini and Giovanni Trapattoni, as well as the great Gianni Rivera, but Altafini was the star.

His goals had propelled Milan past England’s Ipswich Town and Scotland’s Dundee in earlier rounds and his competition tally of 14 was a record that stood for 51 years until, perhaps fittingly, it was smashed by old foes Real Madrid and their superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

His five goals against l’Union Luxembourg earlier in the tournament represent a European Cup match record equalled by a mere handful of stars, among them Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

Jose Joao Altafini in his present role as
TV football pundit

Altafini, now 77, is a Brazilian-Italian whose family hailed from Trentino Alto-Adige. European Cup glory earned Milan an Intercontinental Cup clash with Pele’s legendary Santos team, in which Altafini scored again. He was later nominated for two Ballon D'Or awards.

Nowadays, he is Italy’s answer to Sky TV’s Chris Kamara. Just as the British pundit is known for his catchphrase ‘Unbelievable, Jeff’ when describing a dramatic piece of action on the Soccer Saturday show, Altafini typically reacts with “incredible, amici” or “incredible, friends”.

It was Altafini who coined the “Golazzo” goal reaction which was used on Football Italia on Channel 4 in the UK during the 1990s.

Altafini, brought up in a large Italian community in Sao Paulo, is notable for having played for two different nations at the World Cup.

He gained Italian citizenship as a teenager but launched his career at Sao Paulo side Palmeiras. He made his debut for Brazil aged 18 and scored alongside a young Pele as Brazil beat Argentina in winning the Copa Roca in 1957.

Altafini then starred for the South Americans in the following year’s World Cup, but was left out of the team in the final. Four years on, he was barred from playing for Brazil as they refused to pick players based outside the country.

Instead, Altafini played for his adopted home, and that of his antecedents, Italy. He scored five goals in six games for the Azzurri, but was not picked again after the 1962 World Cup in Chile.

During a glittering club career that spanned 24 years and also took in Napoli and Juventus after he left the San Siro, Altafini scored 334 league goals in 653 appearances.

Altafini was revered in Naples, where he scored 97 goals in little more than 200 matches in all competitions, but it is in Milan where Italy’s adopted son had his best days.

He won two Scudetti for the Rossoneri in addition to the European Cup triumph at Wembley.  A.C Milan have gone on to be Italy’s most successful side in Europe, winning the elite competition six more times.

Their tally of seven is yet another record bettered only by Altafini’s old enemy Real Madrid, who have won 10.

Travel tip:

San Siro is easily reached by the new purple M5 metro line. The nearest stations are San Siro Ippodromo and San Siro Stadio, both a short walk from the stadium. From the city centre, take Linea M1 and change at Lotto or Linea M2 and change at Garibaldi.  It takes a little under 20 minutes to get from Piazza Duomo to the stadium.  Travelling to the stadium by tram is still a popular option.  Route number 16 passes close to Piazza Duomo and terminates at the stadium. The journey takes about half an hour.

Lago di Caldonazzo

Travel tip:

Jose Joao Altafini's mother was born in the town of Caldonazzo in Trentino-Alto Adige, about 20 kilometres from Trento and close to Lago di Caldonazzo, which is the largest lake in the region. A popular centre for watersports such as windsurfing, sailing, diving, swimming and rowing, and also popular with fishermen, the lake is the source of the Brenta river.

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Internazionale - football superpower

Famous club that broke away from rivals AC Milan

Internazionale's famous logo, designed
by club founder Giorgio Muggiani

Internazionale, one of Italy's most successful football clubs, came into being on this day in 1908.

The winner 18 times of lo scudetto - the Italian championship - the club known often as Inter or Inter-Milan was born after a split within the membership of the Milan Cricket and Football Club, forerunner of the club known now as A C Milan.

The original club was established by expatriate British football enthusiasts with a membership restricted to Italian and British players. It was after a dispute over whether foreign players should be signed that a breakaway group formed.

Plans for a new club were drawn up at a meeting at the Ristorante L'Orologio in Via Giuseppe Mengoni in Milan, a short distance from the opera house, Teatro alla Scala.  It was a restaurant popular with theatregoers and artists, among them Giorgio Muggiani, a painter who would become renowned for his work in advertising, where he designed iconic posters for such clients as Pirelli, Cinzano, Martini and Moto Guzzi.

Muggiani, who had developed an enthusiasm for football while studying in Switzerland, was the driving force behind the new club and it was he who designed the club's famous logo, featuring the colours blue, black and gold.  He was appointed the club's first secretary.

A statement issued to announce the birth of the new club romantically proclaimed:

Giorgio Muggiani (second left) pictured in 1912 with
some of his fellow founding members of Internazionale

"This wonderful night will give us the colours for our crest: black and blue against a backdrop of gold stars. It will be called Internazionale because we are brothers of the world."

The new club had to wait only two years to win their first scudetto in 1910.  Their total of 18 titles is the same as that of the city rivals from whom they broke free and with whom they share the colossal Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, which holds 80,000 spectators.  Only Juventus (31 titles) have been champions more often.

Also known as San Siro, after the district of Milan in which it is situated, the stadium was named in honour of Giuseppe Meazza, the inside forward who is Internazionale's all-time record goalscorer with 241 league goals and who was captain of the Italian national team that won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938.

Inter's history features two peaks of dominance in Italian football, the first in the 1960s, when they won three Serie A titles in four years as well as two consecutive European Cups, and the years between 2005 and 2010, when a record-equalling run of five consecutive titles culminated in an unprecedented treble in 2010. They are also the only Italian club that has never been relegated from the top division.

The inside forward Giuseppe Meazza
scored 241 league goals for Inter

The Argentine coach Hellenio Herrera, famous for his belief in the catenaccio tactical system, with its strong emphasis on defence, was behind the first golden era.

The more recent one was started by the current manager, Roberto Mancini, after he was appointed for the first time in 2004, and continued by Jose Mourinho, who steered the team to a domestic double of Serie A and Coppa Italia in 2010 as well as winning the European Cup for Inter for the first time in 45 years.

Inter benefited during that period from the penalties imposed on Juventus and AC Milan following the calciopoli corruption scandal.  They were given the 2005-06 title by default, having actually finished third, and by the time their two rivals recovered -- Juventus were punished with relegation to Serie B, AC Milan with a points deduction -- they had developed a winning momentum that remained with them until Mourinho left, bound for Real Madrid.

Inter's fortunes have dipped in more recent times, failing to qualify for the Champions League for four seasons in a row.  With Mancini back in charge they have improved this year but having led the Serie A table in the first week of January they have slipped back to fifth, 13 points behind current leaders Juventus.

The Arena Civica in Milan as it originally looked

Travel tip:

For many years, Internazionale's home ground was the Arena Civica, in the heart of Milan. Opened in 1807 in the city's Parco Semp-ione, behind the Castello Sforzesco, the arena is one of Milan's main examples of neoclassical architecture, an elliptical amphitheatre commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte soon after he became King of Italy in 1805.  Napoleon wanted it to be Milan's equivalent of the Colosseum in Rome, although there are Greek influences too.  The structure was built using stone reclaimed from the destruction of the Spanish fortifications at the Castello Sforzesco and from the castle at Trezzo sull'Adda. The first event to be staged there, fittingly, was a chariot race.  It was adapted for football in the early part of the 20th century and was Inter's permanent home until the move to San Siro in 1947, although they continued to play some matches there until 1958.

Milan hotels by Booking.com

Milan's Piazza del Duomo is near Via Giuseppe Mengoni,
where Inter's founders met in a restaurant

Travel tip:

Although the Ristorante L'Orologio in Via Giuseppe Mengoni no longer exists, the street is at the centre of Milan, running parallel with the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and opening out into the cathedral square Piazza del Duomo.  The Castello Sforzesco and Parco Sempione are a 15-minute walk or two stops on Metro Linea 1 from the Duomo.

More reading

Roberto Mancini, skilful player turned successful coach

Giuseppe Meazza, Italian football's first superstar

Genoa Football and Cricket Club - where it all began

Also on this day:

1454: The birth of explorer Amerigo Vespucci

1809: The birth of politician and winemaker Bettino Ricasoli

1948: The birth of radical politician Emma Bonino

(Picture credits: Piazza del Duomo by Katia Gutkowska)

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Salvatore 'Toto' Schillaci - footballer

Golden boy of Italia ‘90 now coaches future players

The star of Italy’s 1990 World Cup campaign, Toto Schillaci, was born on this day in Palermo in Sicily in 1964.

Toto Schillaci in action

Schillaci was born into a struggling, working class household in Palermo. He began his football career with Messina in Sicily, playing in Serie B, but his goals earned him a move to Serie A giants Juventus in 1989.

He continued his scoring form, hitting 21 goals in his first season for Juventus, earning a call-up to the national team for the first time. He made his debut in a friendly in March, just three months before the World Cup finals began.

Small in stature, but agile, he owed many of his goals to his quick reactions in the box, which enabled him to snap up half-chances. 

Despite his status as a novice in terms of international football, coach Azeglio Vicini named him for the Italy squad seeking to win the World Cup as hosts.

Schillaci was the sensation of the tournament, coming off the bench to score the only goal in Italy's opening match against Austria.

Relive all of Toto Schillaci's six goals in Italia '90

After going on as sub again in Italy's second match, he made his first start against Czechoslovakia in the third of their group games and scored again, playing alongside Robert Baggio up front.

As Italy progressed, Schillaci grabbed further goals against Uruguay in the first knock-out round and Ireland in the quarter-finals, taking his team to a semi-final against Argentina in Naples, where he scored again but Italy's adventure ended in a penalty shoot-out.

A goal against England in the match to decide third place increased Schillaci's total to six for the tournament. He matched Paoli Rossi in 1982 by winning the Golden Boot as leading marksman, as well as the Golden Ball award as best player of the tournament.

Sadly, after Italia ‘90, Schillaci suffered a downturn in fortunes and would score only one more international goal, against Norway in 1991, in what would prove to be the last of his 23 appearances for the Azzurri.

Toto Schillaci in familiar pose

Pundits began labelling him a one-hit wonder. The goals dried up at Juventus and he had a number of injuries. He fared no better when he moved to Internazionale in Milan in 1992. He fell out of favour with coach Osvaldo Bagnoli and the fans booed him. 

He was to enjoy a renaissance in Japan. Signing for Jubilo Iwata in the fledgling J-League, he became the first Italian to play professional football in Japan and scored 56 goals in just 78 appearances.

He retired in 1999, returning to his native Palermo, where he set up his own football academy and also served as a local councillor. 

Travel tip:

Palermo is the capital of Sicily, a vibrant city with a wealth of beautiful architecture bearing testament to its rich history. There are plenty of shops and markets to browse in and a large opera house.


Travel tip:
Juventus Football Club, colloquially known as Juve, play at Juventus Stadium in Turin in Piedmont (Piemonte). They are currently in fifth place in Serie A. Last Sunday (29 November) they beat Palermo 3-0.

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Roberto Mancini footballer and manager

Skilful player now highly successful coach

Roberto Mancini, a former Italy player and the current manager of Inter Milan, was born on this day in Iesi in Marche in 1964.

Roberto Mancini during his
Manchester City days.
Photo by Roger Goraczniak

Mancini, an elegant and creative forward, was capped 36 times by Italy between 1984 and 1994.

After a highly successful playing career, in which he was part of title-winning teams at Sampdoria and Lazio, he enjoyed immediate success as a manager, winning the Coppa Italia in his first season as Fiorentina boss in 2000. He repeated the feat in his second season at his next club, Lazio.

Mancini then made his mark emphatically at Internazionale, guiding the Milan club to a club record three consecutive Serie A titles, as well as winning the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa (a pre-season match between the Serie A champions and the Coppa Italia winners) twice. This made him the club's most successful manager for 30 years.

While at Inter, he also set a Serie A record by winning 17 consecutive matches.

He was out of football for a year after being dismissed by Inter in 2008, despite his domestic success, having failed to meet expectations in the Champions League, reaching the quarter-finals in his first two seasons but being knocked out in the first round in the next two seasons.

He was hired by the wealthy new owners of Manchester City in December 2009 to replace Mark Hughes and again made a quick impact, winning the FA Cup in his first full season in charge, the club's first major trophy for 35 years. The following year, he led City to the Premier League title, making them English champions for the first time since 1968, after a 44-year wait.

Success in Europe again eluded him, however, and he was sacked in May 2013, following a shock defeat to Wigan in the FA Cup final.

After one season with Galatasaray in Turkey, he took charge at Inter for a second time in November 2014 and his customary winning ways quickly made an impact. Inter are the current leaders of Serie A.

UPDATE (November, 2022): Mancini was appointed head coach of the Italian national team in 2018 following their failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia. Mancini likewise failed to secure a place at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar. Unlike his predeccessor, Luigi Di Biagio, however, he remained in post, having signed a renewed long-term contract shortly before leading the azzurri to victory at the delayed 2020 European Championship finals in England.

Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in San Siro, Milan, home
of Mancini's current club, Internazionale.
Photo by Dan Heap

Travel tip:

FC Inter-
nazionale Milano, often referred to simply as Inter, play their home games at the San Siro stadium in Milan, which they share with their rivals A C Milan. The stadium in Via Piccolomini is a short tram ride out of the centre of Milan.

Travel tip:

Iesi, the town of Roberto Mancini’s birth, is in the province of Ancona in the Marche region of Italy. Le Marche (the Marches) run along the Adriatic Sea in the central part of the peninsula and are considered a good holiday destination for travellers who like to get off the beaten track in Italy.

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