Giorgio Chinaglia

Giorgio Chinaglia

Personal information
Full name	Giorgio Chinaglia
Date of birth	(1947-01-24)January 24, 1947
Place of birth	Carrara, Italy
Date of death	1 April 2012(2012-04-01) (aged 65)
Place of death	Naples, Florida, United States
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1964–1966	Swansea City	6	(1)
1966–1967	Massese	32	(5)
1967–1969	Internapoli	66	(24)
1969–1976	Lazio	209	(98)
1976–1983	New York Cosmos	213	(193)
Total		547	(359)
National team
1972–1975	Italy	14	(11)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Giorgio Chinaglia (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo kiˈnaʎʎa]; January 24, 1947 – April 1, 2012) was an Italian footballer. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales, and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. He later returned to Italy to play for Massese, Internapoli and S.S. Lazio in 1969. He played international football for Italy, including two appearances at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

In 1976, Chinaglia left Lazio to sign with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. With the Cosmos team that also featured Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer, Chinaglia won four league titles, and retired in 1983 as NASL's all-time leading scorer with 243 goals.

In 2000, Chinaglia was inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame and was named the greatest player in Lazio's history during the club's centenary celebrations.

Early years in Wales

Chinaglia was born in Carrara, Tuscany in 1947, but in 1955, he moved to Cardiff, Wales with his father Mario, mother Giovanna and his sister Rita, because of unemployment in Italy following World War II. Because his family was poor, Chinaglia said, "All four of us lived in one room," he says, "My father was an ironworker and it was tough. I used to take the milk left on people's porches and drink it for breakfast."

At age 13, by which time his father had bought an Italian restaurant in Cardiff, Chinaglia was spotted scoring a hat trick for Cardiff Schools, and joined Swansea Town in the Football League Third Division as an apprentice in 1962.

Chinaglia made his senior debut for Swansea in October 1964 at Rotherham United, with his League debut following in February. His final Swans appearance was in March 1966, coming on as a substitute against Brentford.

With Swansea, Chinaglia won the 1965 West Wales Senior Cup, scoring in the 3–0 victory in the final against Llanelli, and represented the Swansea Senior Association Football League in 1964 in a representative match against the Birmingham & District Works Football Association.

Club career in Italy

Serie C

In 1966, because of the lack of interest from British clubs and his compulsory Italian military service, Chinaglia, then age 19, and his family moved back to Carrara. He credited the military requirement with getting his career on track, saying, "Otherwise, I'd probably still be in Wales, slogging it out in the mud and drinking ale. The Italian army has a special regiment for soccer players, so all I did in the service was to train all day, and when my club had a game, get a pass."

Chinaglia was banned from playing in Serie A, the top division, for three years because he had played professionally outside of Italy, and his father fixed him up with Massese, a Serie C club in Massa near his home.

The following season, he joined another Serie C club, Internapoli in Naples, where he played two seasons and scored 26 goals in 66 matches.

Lazio

Chinaglia rose to fame in Italy’s Serie A, where he led S.S. Lazio to their first ever title in 1973-74. His 98 goals in 209 games, from 1969-1976, earned him the honor of being named the club’s greatest player when the Biancocelesti celebrated their centenary in 2000.

National team career

Chinaglia's play with Lazio earned him a place on head coach Ferruccio Valcareggi's shortlist for the Italy squad in the 1970 FIFA World Cup. He did not make the final 22-man squad, but Valcareggi took him to Mexico for experience.

In 1971, after Lazio were demoted to Serie B, Chinaglia became the first Italian national team player in modern history to be selected from a second-tier division club.

In 1973, Chinaglia returned to England with the Azzurri to face England in a friendly match. In the 86th minute, Chinaglia beat English defender Bobby Moore and sent in a cross that was tapped in by Fabio Capello, helping Italy to its first win over England at Wembley Stadium.

Chinaglia was selected for Italy's squad at the 1974 FIFA World Cup and ended his national team career with 14 caps and 11 goals.

Career with the Cosmos

Chinaglia (#9, at top left) with the Cosmos in Cipolletti, Argentina, 1980.

In 1976, Chinaglia moved to the NASL and the New York Cosmos. While many foreign stars would play in the NASL (Pelé, George Best and Gerd Muller being the best examples), Chinaglia was probably the first great player to leave his original team for the NASL while still in the prime of his career. This is evident with the great success he had in the NASL, scoring 397 goals in outdoor games and 38 goals in 21 indoor games giving him a total of 435 goals during his Cosmos career. He led his team in scoring for (13) straight seasons, 6 at Lazio and 7 at the Cosmos. Chinaglia scored 2 or more goals 54 times for the Cosmos, of which 14 were playoff games. He scored 3 or more goals in a game 16 times, 5 in the playoffs. He scored 7 goals in a playoff game vs. the Tulsa Roughnecks in 1980 as well as 7 goals in a game vs. the Chicago Sting on December 8, 1981. Chinaglia also netted 8 goals in an exhibition game. Chinaglia won the NASL Most Valuable Player Award in 1981.

Chinaglia scored 49 goals in 41 playoff games for the Cosmos for his career and scored 5 goals in 5 Soccer Bowls, 3 of which were game winners (1977, 1978, and 1982).

As of May 1979, he was the highest goal scorer amongst active players in the NASL, and was NASL top scorer in 1976 and 1978.

In 2000 he was inducted into the U.S.A. National Soccer Hall of Fame. He also became a close associate of Warner Brothers president Steve Ross, part-owner of the franchise, and was known to thoroughly enjoy the cultural diversions that New York provided.

Later life

At the time of his death, Chinaglia was co-hosting a daily soccer talk show, The Football Show, from 0700 to 0900 on Sirius Satellite Radio.

In 1979, Chinaglia became a naturalized American citizen, telling New York Times reporter Diane Ackerman that he proudly kept his citizenship papers in his locker next to his bottle of Chivas Regal.

Personal

In late March 2012, Chinaglia was admitted to a hospital in Florida after suffering a heart attack and was released after undergoing surgery. However, on April 1 he died at his home in Naples, Florida just 47 days after his divorce was final. Leaving behind his next of kin, his 3 children, Cynthia, Giorgio, and Stephanie Chinaglia.

References

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/apr/04/soccer-star-naples-resident-giorgio-chinaglia-as/

Bibliography

• Arrivederci Swansea: The Giorgio Chinaglia Story (by Mario Risoli, Mainstream Publishing).