Italy 1934

Pozzo and his formidable team, 9 of whom had won World Cup winners medals the previous June.
They played England at Highbury on 14.11.34.
England won a highly controversial match 3-2.

Calciatore di mistero

Ars et labor, incorporating Musica e Musicisti (1906-1912) was an Italian illustrated arts magazine from the Stile Liberty period.
I initially thought 'Genoa Cricket and Football Club' when I saw this handsome fellow, but the colours are reversed.
Maybe just some random guy?

Cevenini brothers

The five Cevenini brothers all played top class football, their collective careers spanning the years 1907- 1939, winning 8 league titles between them.

Cevenini I: Aldo- combined 200 games with Milan and Internazionale. Won 2 national championships, represented Italy 11 times (including the first international in 1910), scoring 3 goals.

 Cevenini II:Mario- a defender who represented both Milan giants and won 2 league titles.

 Cevenini III:Luigi -played for Internazionale 190 times in 3 spells and scored 156 goals, winning the Italian Prima Divisione title in 1920. He also represented Novese and Juventus. For Italy
 he scored 11 goals in 29 matches between 1915 and 1929, was captain on 7 occasions, and a  Central European International Cup winner.

Cevenini IV: Cesare - a defender, he won the Prima Divisione with Inter in 1919-20.

Cevenini V: Carlo- enjoyed success at Milan, Internazonale, Lazio and Novese, where he won the title in  1921-22.


 Aldo, Mario Luigi and Carlo all featuered in Novese's championship success of 1921-22.

Men v Boys

A remarkable photograph.
Internazionale claimed their first championship title on 24-04-1910. They did so with a 10-3 victory over a Pro Vercelli reserve team made up of youths reportedly aged 11-15. The 2 had finished level on points at the end of the league programme. F.I.G.C.had refused to reschedule the play off, which clashed with Pro Vercelli's prior arrangement to play in a tournament. Pro Vercelli's response was to field the youth side, who reportedly indulged in some dirty play.
 In the regular season Pro Vercelli had beaten Inter 4-1 in Milan, whilst Inter had won the return 2-1.

Gatto Magico

Goalkeeper Mario Gianni played 340 plus first team games for Bologna, winning 3 scudetti. In an era of outstanding goalkeepers he represented Italy 6 times.

Women's Football

A charming illustration of an international match between England and France.

Giuseppe Meazza

Meazza's career as a player spanned 20 years (1927-47) and he won 53 international caps between 1930-39.
For Internazionale (Ambrosiana) Meazza scored 242 goals in 365 games. He was Capocannoniere on 3 occasions and scored 33 international goals in his 53 appearances, winning 2 World Cups.
Let's look at the early phase of Meazza's career:  

Season 1927-28:  2 goals on his first team debut age 17. 12 goals in 33 games. 
Season  1928-29:  Top scorer in the national championships with 38 goals in 29 matches.  This included 2 5 goal matches and 6 goals in 1 match (against Venezia). 
Season 1929-30:The first season of Serie A- Capocannoniere with 31 goals.

Not bad considering that Milan rejected him as a 14 year old for being undersized,
 and his first coach at Internazionale's youth side played him as a defender! 

Italy 1936

Berlin (Olympia Stadion) – Saturday, 15th August 1936.
Vittorio Pozzo celebrates with his gold medal winners after the Azzurri had beaten Austria 2-1 in the Olympic Final in front of an 85,000 crowd. 
Italy lined up: Venturini (Sampierdarenese), Foni (Juventus), Rava (Juventus), Baldo (Lazio), Piccini (Fiorentina), Locatelli (Ambrosiana), Frossi (Ambrosiana), Marchini (Lucchese), Bertoni (Pisa), Biagi (Pisa),Gabriotti (Lazio).

Sergio Bertoni, Alfredo Foni, Pietro Rava and Ugo Locatelli went on to feature in Italy's World Cup win in 1938.

Augusto Rangone

When we think of Italian managers in the pre war era the name of Vittorio Pozzo will, of course, forever dominate, leading the Azzuri on 95 occasions including 2 World Cup wins.
In the majority of other matches in this era the team was run by a group of coaches referred to as the Technical Committee. They were also overseen by Augusto Rangone for 24 matches, of which they won 12.
The Alessandria manager first contributed to the national scene in 1922 -24 as part of the Technical Committee (along with Umberto Meazza and Augusto Galletti, with Silva and Agostini also contributing for the game on 20.01.24).

03.12.22	Italy	2	2	Switzerland
01.01.23	Italy	3	1	Germany
04.03.23	Italy	0	0	Hungary
15.04.23	Austria	0	0	Italy
27.05.23	Czechoslovakia	5	1	Italy
20.01.24	Italy	0	4	Austria

This lack of success prompted the appointment of Pozzo as national coach, a position he held for 5 games, including the 1924 Olympic tournament.
In November 1924 the Technical Committee approach was given another try. This time Rangone, Milano and  Baccani formed the triumvirate.

16.11.24	Italy	2	2	Sweden
23.11.24	Germany	0	1	Italy
19.01.25	Italy	1	2	Hungary
22.03.25	Italy	7	0	France
14.06.25	Spain	1	0	Italy
18.06.25	Portugal	1	0	Italy

In November 1925 Rangone alone was entrusted with the running of the national side. Rangone contributed to the nations first 2 international honours- he oversaw the  first 50% of Italy's victorious Coupe Internationale européenne campaign of 1927-30 and led them to a Bronze medal at the 1928 Olympics.

04.11.25	Italy	2	1	Yugoslavia
08.11.25	Hungary	1	1	Italy
17.01.26	Italy	3	1	Czechoslovakia
21.03.26	Italy	3	0	Irish Free State
18.04.26	Switzerland	1	1	Italy
09.05.26	Italy	3	2	Switzerland
18.07.26	Sweden	5	3	Italy
28.10.26	Czechoslovakia	3	1	Italy
30.01.27	Switzerland	1	5	Italy
20.02.27	Italy	2	2	Czechoslovakia
17.04.27	Italy	3	1	Portugal
24.04.27	France	3	3	Italy
29.05.27	Italy	2	0	Spain
23.10.27	Czechoslovakia	2	2	Italy*
06.11.27	Italy	0	1	Austria*
01.01.28	Italy	3	2	Switzerland*
25.03.28	Italy	4	3	Hungary*
15.04.28	Portugal	4	1	Italy
22.04.28	Spain	1	1	Italy
29.05.28	France	3	4	Italy **
01.06.28	Italy	1	1	Spain **
04.06.28	Italy	7	1	Spain **
07.06.28	Italy	2	3	Uruguay **
09.06.28	Italy	11	3	Egypt **

*Coupe Internationale européenne
** Olympic Games 

As part of Technical Committee:

P	W	D	L	F	A
12	3	4	5	17	18

As sole coach/manager:

P	W	D	L	F	A
24	12	7	5	68	44

Silvio Piola

16 year old Silvio Piola pictured in the colours of Pro Vercelli in 1929.
In a career that lasted until 1954 Piola would go on to be the most prolific scorer in the history of Italian top flight football, with 333 goals in 619 games.
Piola joined Lazio in 1934 having scored 51 goals in 127 league  matches for Pro Vercelli.

Italy 1928

Amsterdam, June 9th 1928- Italy beat Egypt in the Olympic Bronze medal match. The final score is 11-3. Schiavo, Banchero and Magnozzi score 3 each, Baloncieri gets 2.
And the Italians celebrate by ... I always thought that this photograph depicted a fascist salute, which had entered common usage in Italy in 1925.  The contemporary Dutch and French descriptions refer to an Olympic greeting .

Ireland v Italy 1927

Having played 3 matches at the  Olympics, in June 1924 The Irish Free State entertained the USA in Dublin. These matches are frequently omitted from the list of internationals played by the Republic of Ireland.
In March 1926 The Irish Free State were beaten 3-0 by a strong Italian side in Turin.
The programme pictured above is for the 'return' match.
This was not considered a full international by the Italians, and the side was designated as Italy B (or Nazionale Cadetti). It was a decent side however, and all 11 starters would in time become full internationals.

GK	Frank Collins	Jacobs
FB	Frank Brady  c	Shamrock Rovers
FB	Alec Kirkland	Fordsons
HB	William Glen	Shamrock Rovers
HB	Michael O`Brien	Derby County
HB	Thomas Muldoon	Aston Villa
F	Bill Lacey	Shelbourne
F	Harry Duggan	Leeds United
F	Christopher Martin	Bo`ness
F	Bob Fullam	Shamrock Rovers
F	Joe Kendrick	Everton

               

GK	Mario Gianni	Bologna
FB	Mario Zanello	Pro Vercelli
FB	Delfo Bellini	Genoa
HB	Pietro Genovesi	Bologna
HB	Luigi Burlando	Genoa
HB	Alberto Giordani	Bologna
F	Federico Munerati	Juventus
F	Antonio Vojak	Juventus
F	Pietro Pastore	Milan
F	Enrico Rivolta	Internazionale
F	Luigi Cevenini c	Juventus
Sub.	Gianangelo Barzan (Milan) replaced Zanello

Bob Fulam and Federico Munerati were the goalscorers as Italy won 2-1 watched by an crowd of approximately 20,000.