Plánička

František Plánička played  969 games for Slavia Prague, 76% of which ended in victory. During thirteen seasons that Plánička was at the club between 1925 and 1938, Slavia won seven league titles. He played 73 games for Czechoslovakia. The English influence on central European football was evident in one of his nicknames-  Majster Robinzonád- The Master Diver. The diving save being known as a Robinzonád after the turn of the century Southampton and England 'keeper Jack Robinson.

 Plánička was 172cm.

The picture above shows Plánička as captain of Czechoslovakia at the 1934 World Cup Final. He is shaking hands with Gianpierro Combi- the goalkeeper and captain of Italy.

Il Quinquennio D'Oro

Rosetta, Combi, Caligaris

In the 1930-31 season Juventus secured their 3rd national championship (they won the 

Prima Categoria in 1905 and Prima Divisione in 1925-26). They went on to win 5 league titles in succession.

	P	W	D	L	F	A
1930-31	34	25	5	4	79	37
1931-32	34	24	6	4	89	38
1932-33	34	25	4	5	83	23
1933-34	34	23	7	4	88	31
1934-35	30	18	8	4	45	22

Line ups:

1930-31	1931-32	1932-33	1933-34	1934-35
Combi*				Valinasso
Rosetta*
Caligaris*	Ferrero	Caligaris		Foni*
Barale	Monti**
M Varglien*
Rier	Bertolini*
Munerati*		Sernagiotto"		Cesarini
Cesarini**			G Varglien*
Vecchina*		Borel*
Ferrari*
Orsi**

* Italian internationals.

**Italian/Argentinian internationals.

" Brazil international.

Leading Scorers:
1930-31	Orsi- 20, Vecchina, Ferrari -16
1931-32	Orsi- 19, Ferrari- 17
1932-33	Borel-29 (capocannoniere)
1933-34	Borel- 31 (capocannoniere), Ferrari- 16
1934-35	Borel - 13

Monti

Renato Cesarini

Mario Varglien

Orsi, Vecchina, Munerati 

Giovanni Ferrari

Felice Borel

Umberto Caligaris

Umberto Caligaris was a full back  who played for Casale (1919-28), Juventus (1928-35) and Brescia (1935-37). He won 59 caps for Italy between 1922 and 1934. This remained the record number of caps for Italy until 1971. 
Caligaris won a bronze medal at the 1928 Olympics and was part of the Italy squad that won the Coupe Internationale européenne that concluded in 1930. He was picked for Italy's 1934 World Cup Squad but didn't play in any of the matches. 
He featured in  Juventus's run of five consecutive Serie A wins (Il Quinquennio d'oro).
Notice that his name is misspelled on the card.

Italy 1910

25 footballers identified as 'probables ' for the future Italian national team by Lettura Sportiva in February 1910.
The first Italian XI in May of that year featured 10 of these players (marked *), and 19 of those featured eventually represented their country.  It seems surprising that Genoa CFC or Torino are not represented.

The players (and their clubs) are as follows:

Andrea Doria

Luigi Marchetti

? Ansaldo

Francesco Cali*

Of the 3 players from the Genoese club only the defender Francesco Cali (who had previously represented Switzerland) attained international honours. 

Juventus

Giovanni Goccione

Alfredo Ferraris

Ernesto Borel

Umberto Pennano

None of these players made the international XI.

Club Internazionale

Virgillio Fossati*

Internazionale had only been founded in 1908, and this was the year of their farcical first scudetto. Centre half Fossati was killed in battle in 1918.

Club Ausonia

Giuseppe Rizzi*

Attilio Trerea*

Franco Bontadini

All 3 were capped. Bontadini was selected for the first international  but couldn’t play due to medical school commitments. When selected for international duty he had moved on to Internazionale.

Ausonia Football Club was a Milan based team that folded in 1912.

Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club

Pietro Lana *

Aldo Cevenini*

Gustavo Carrer

All three represented Italy. 

Unione Sportiva Milanese

Franco Varisco *

Mario De Simoni*

Arturo Boiocchi *

USM originally wound up in 1928 

Pro Vercelli

Giovanni Innocenti

Giuseppe Milano

Felice Milano

Guido Ara

Pietro Leone

Carlo Corna

Angelo Binaschi

Carlo Rampini

Pro Vercelli were the big guns of Italian football, and the inclusion of 8 of their players shows how highly they were regarded. However, in between the publication of this magazine and the selection of the first Italian XI Pro Vercelli were ostracised for their refusal to play Internaziuonale in a championship play-off, instead fielding a team of 11-15 year olds (of which more soon!). As a consequence of this the Pro Vercelli stars had to wait a while for their international debuts. 

Italy 1912

back (L-R):  Angelo Binaschi, Franco Bontadini, Felice Berardo, Giuseppe Milano, Pietro Leone, Renzo De Vecchi, Piero Campelli;
 front (L-R):. Carlo De Marchi, Enrico Sardi, Enea Zuffi, Edoardo Marian 

Vittorio Pozzo had 4 spells as the manger/coach of the Italian national team. His first period in charge lasted 5 days, being for the duration of Italy's involvement in the 1912 Olympic Games at Stockholm.
Here are the teams that Pozzo fielded in Italy's 3 games.

Campelli (Internazionale)	Campelli	Campelli
Binaschi (Pro Vercelli)	De Vecchi	De Vecchi
De Vecchi (Milan C&FC)	Valle (Pro Vercelli)	Valle
De Marchi  (Torino)  *	Binaschi	Binaschi
Milano (c) (Pro Vercelli)	Milano (c)	Milano (c)
Leone (Pro Vercelli)	Leone	Leone
Zuffi (Torino)	Bontadini	Zuffi
Bontadini (Internazionale)	Berardo	Bontadini
Berardo (Pro Vercelli)	Sardi	Berardo
Sardi (Andrea Doria)	Barbesino (Casale)	Barbesino
Mariani (Genoa C&FC)	Mariani	Mariani
di Popolo (Torino)*

*di Popolo replaced  De Marchi at half time.

In the opening game Italy lost 3-2 to Finland in extra time. Italy's goalscorers were Bontadini (1-1:10 min) and Sardi (1-2:25min).

Italy then beat Sweden 1-0 in the consolation tournament (Bontaini the scorer).

Pozzo in conference with William Garbutt (centre)

In the next match they met Jimmy Hogan's Austria and were beaten 5-1, Berardo Italy's scorer. 

Pozzo's next period as coach of the Azzuri began in the build up to the Paris Olympics 12 years later. 

Società Ginnastica Andrea Doria

Società Ginnastica Andrea Doria was founded at Genoa's Swiss College in 1895. They were named after a great Genoese admiral and warlord of the 16th century. The main focus of the club was gymnastics, but informal games of football were played from the outset, and a football section was formally instituted in 1900.
The club first participated in the  Campionato Federale di Football in 1902, their debut being a 3-1 defeat at the hands of neighbours Genoa.

The colours were blue and white

Andrea Doria were winners of the Federazione Ginnastica Nazionale Italiana's Campionato Italiano di Calcio on 3 occasions (1910, 1912 &1913) and shared the title once (1902).

1924

Under the fascist regime Società Ginnastica Andrea Doria underwent an enforced merger with Società Ginnastica Comunale Sampierdarenese to form a short lived team called L'Associazione Calcio La Dominante (1927-1930).

Lo Sport Fascista - February 1933

Mussolini, although not a great football fan, realised the propaganda potential of sport and exploited the success of Italian sportsmen during the Fascist Era for these purposes.
The player featured on this magazine from  February 1933 is Bologna centre forward Angelo Schiavio.
Schiavio spent 16 seasons at Bologna (1922-1938), scoring  109 goals in 179 Serie A appearances and 242 senior goals in a total of 348 appearances. In the 1931–1932 season he was Capocannoniere  with 25 goals. He featured in 4 scudetto winning squads and won the Mitropa Cup twice.
His international record with Italy (1925-1934) was 15 goals in 21 matches, He won Olympic Bronze (1928) and was a World Cup Winner (1934), scoring the winning goal in the final. Schiavo also featured in 2 successful  Coupe Internationale européenne campaigns. 

Coppa Italia 1922

The Coppa Italia is a relatively new competition that just about comes into our pre 1937 view of World Football. Regular stagings date from 1935-36 (Torino were the winners, followed in 1936-37 by Genoa). 
Earlier editions of the Coppa had been held in 1926-27 and 1922.
In 1926-27 the competition had been abandoned due to fixture congestion. 111 entrants had been reduced to 34 with only Baracca Lugo, Pro Vercelli and Carpi through to the next round when the tournament was closed in June.
The first  Coppa had been played in 1922.
Italian domestic football at the time was a sprawling regionalised affair. 2 rival editions of the Prima Categoria featured no less than 105 clubs! The Coppa attracted 37 entrants, 23 from the Prima Categoria, 12 from Promozione (the 2nd tier) and 2 from Terza Categoria (3rd tier). 
The winners of the inaugural Coppa Italia were Vado. Founded in 1913 and based in the industrial port of Vado Ligure, 60 km from Genoa the club have spent the majority of their history in the 4th tier. In 1921-22 they were enjoying success in the Ligurian regional league.

The cup run was as follows:

02.04.22	R1	Vado	4	3	Fiorente Genova	aet
09.04.22	R2	Vado	5	1	Molassana
23.04.22	R3	Vado	2	0	Juventus Italia
18.06.22	QF	Pro Livorno	0	1	Vado
25.06.22	SF	Vado	1	0	Libertas Firenze	aet
15.07.22	Final	Vado	1	0	Udinese	aet

Levratto (center) 

The final was 0-0 at 90 minutes and the extra time was played on a 'golden goal ' basis. The light was failing and referee, Sgr. Pasquinelli was on the verge of calling a halt to proceedings when 17 year old Virgilio Levratto cut inside from the left, beat 2 men and sent a 20 yard rocket into the top left corner of the net. It was the 127th minute of the game.
Levratto went on to play for a number of top flight sides  (Hellas Verona , Genoa , Ambrosiana and Lazio ). 
He represented Italy 28 times scoring 11 goals and appeared at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics. 
Levratto was known as Sfondareti (“net breaker”) due to the venom of his shooting. He once knocked the Luxembourg goalkeeper out cold with a shot. 

Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club

When Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club won the first of its national championships in 1898 it retained many features of its origins as an English institution. The club jerseys for example, were white, and the manager was an Englishman- Dr James Richardson Spensley.  Dr Spensley's association with the club began in  1897, effectively heralding its beginnings as a serious football club (from the foundation in 1893 the football had been casual, secondary to cricket and athletics). Initially membership of the club had been open only to Englishmen (I'm assuming this covered all Britons), but by 1898 there was a more cosmopolitain air- the championship winning side being made up as follows:

William Baird	England
Ernesto De Galleani	Italy
Fausto Ghigliotti	Italy
Edoardo Pasteur	Italy
James R. Spensley	England
Ettore Wallys Ghiglione	Italy
Robert Al Leaver	England
Giovanni Bocciardo	Italy
Henri Arthur Dapples	Switzerland
Silvio Pietro Bertollo	Italy
John Quertier Le Pelley	Guernsey