Giuseppe Meazza (; 23 August 1910 – 21 August 1979) was an Italian football manager and player. Throughout his career, he played mainly for Inter Milan in the 1930s, scoring 284 goals in 408 games for the club, and winning three Serie A titles, as well as the Coppa Italia; he later also played for two seasons for local rivals Milan, as well as Turin rivals Juventus for one season, in addition to his spells with Varese and Atalanta. At the international level, he led Italy to win two consecutive World Cups: in 1934 on home soil, and in 1938 as captain, being named to the All-star Team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players of the 20th century, and one of the greatest Italian strikers in the history of the sport.
Along with Giovanni Ferrari, Guido Masetti and Eraldo Monzeglio, he is one of only four Italian players to have won two World Cups. Following his retirement, he served as a coach for the Italy national team, and with several Italian clubs, including his former club sides Inter and Atalanta, as well as Pro Patria, and Turkish club Beşiktaş; he was Italy's head coach at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Due to his technical skill, prolific goalscoring, and creative ability, he was often given the nickname Il genio (The Genius) by the Italian press during his career. He has been ranked the fourth-best player in the history of the World Cup. A prolific forward, Meazza won the Serie A top-scorer award on three occasions in his career; with 216 goals in Serie A, he is the fourth all-time highest goal scorer in Serie A, alongside José Altafini, and with 33 goals, he is also the second highest goalscorer for the Italy national team. With 338 goals, he is the third-highest Italian goalscorer in all competitions. He is also the youngest player ever to score 100 goals in Serie A, a feat which he achieved at the age of 23 years and 32 days. San Siro, the principal stadium in his native city of Milan, which is today shared by two of his former clubs, Inter Milan and crosstown rivals A.C. Milan, was named Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in the player's honour on 3 March 1980. In 2011, he was posthumously inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame. Throughout his career, including friendlies, Meazza scored 552 goals.
Early life
Meazza was born in Porta Vittoria, Milan. Having lost his father in 1917 during the fighting of World War I at the age of seven, Peppe grew up in Milan with his mother, Ersilia who came from Mediglia, helping her sell fruit at the market. He began playing football at six years old, and started out playing barefoot with a ball made of rags on the streets for a team named the "Maestri Campionesi". At the age of twelve, his mother gave him permission to pursue a footballing career, and he began playing for Gloria F.C.. It was during this time that a fan gave Meazza his first pair of football boots.
At the age of 14, Meazza admired Milan, but was rejected by the team for his small physique. However, he was instead accepted by Milan's cross-city rivals Inter Milan.
Meazza's nickname, "il Balilla" ("The Little Boy"), was given to him in 1927 by his older teammate Leopoldo Conti, who thought "Peppìn", in Milanese dialect, who was only 17 when he joined the senior team, was too young to be associated to the senior team. He was surprised after Inter coach Árpád Weisz decided to give Meazza his debut for Inter in his place, commenting: "Now we even let the Balilla kids play!" The Opera Nazionale Balilla, the Fascist youth organisation which collected all children aged eight to 14 years, was established in 1926, hence why Conti felt it to be a suitable nickname for the young rookie. However, Meazza later scored two goals on his official debut, leaving Conti speechless.
Club career
thumb|left|Giuseppe Meazza playing with [[Inter Milan]]
Inter
Meazza scored two goals on his professional debut, which came in a 6–2 win against Milanese Unione Sportiva in the Coppa Volta di Como, on 12 September 1927. The following day, the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport praised his game as "intelligent, fresh, quick".
1933–35 Central European International Cup
In 1935 he claimed the Central European International Cup again. Alongside Eraldo Monzeglio, Raimundo Orsi, Raffaele Costantino, Alfredo Pitto, Umberto Caligaris, Luigi Allemandi, Virginio Rosetta & Gianpiero Combi, Meazza is one of only nine (all Italian) players to win two editions of the Central European International Cup (1927–30 and 1933–35); he also finished as the runner-up once with Italy (1931–32), thereby winning two gold medals and a silver medal before the tournament was discontinued due to the Anschluss. He holds the all-time record for appearances and goals, sixteen and eight respectively, at Central European International Cup tournaments for the Italy national side. With 8 goals, he is among the all-time top goal scorers in the competition's history.
1938 FIFA World Cup and later career
thumb|left|1948-49 [[Beşiktaş JK squad.]]
In the 1938 World Cup hosted by France, Meazza captained Italy, again playing in every match. In the semi-final against Brazil, with the score at 1–0 Italy were awarded a penalty after Silvio Piola was fouled by Domingos da Guia. As Meazza stepped up to take the kick, with a chance to double his team's lead, his shorts fell down, as the elastic in them had ripped; he held them up with his left hand, but he still managed to score, beating the Brazilian goalkeeper Walter from the spot by placing the ball into the corner. The goal enabled Italy to win the match 2–1 and sent them into their second consecutive World Cup final.|Luigi Veronelli|
Although he was initially deployed as full-back in his youth, Meazza began his professional career as an all out striker or centre forward, but he later played for more than half of his career as a creative inside left forward, known as the mezzala role in Italian football jargon, although he was also capable of playing on the right. He further demonstrated his skill and creative ability by also becoming an accomplished attacking midfielder, and even played as a central midfielder or as a deep-lying playmaker in his later career. He was known for his excellent shooting ability and intoxicating dribbling skills, with an eye for the final pass. Despite his average height and slight yet stocky build, he was also an exceptional header of the ball and was known for his acrobatic abilities in the air. Beyond his qualities as a player, he was also a great leader on the pitch.
Meazza was the first Italian football player who became famous worldwide and was the first player with personal sponsors. Unlike his more reserved friend, international teammate, and club rival Silvio Piola, a player with whom Meazza was often compared, he was known for having a much more flamboyant character both on and off the pitch. He loved his cabriolet, champagne and women and was the only player on the national team that was allowed to smoke. Meazza was famous for humiliating the best defenders of the era and for sleeping at a brothel the night before a match. With his plush touch on the ball, he would cause panic in the robust defenders from an era where two-footed tackles from behind were often waved on. Not known for having a particularly high work rate, sometimes he would not get out of bed until his teammates were already finished training. He also loved the Tango and used this proficiency to make him unpredictable on the field and could score goals at fox-trot tempo.
He was a superb dribbler who despite his speed and although he was not tall, was remarkably good in the air. Meazza created many chances for his teammates and scored goals as well. His bending goals "a foglia morta", the "dead leaf technique", in particular from free-kicks, were also feared by goalkeepers. As an offensive playmaker, he was a brilliant passer, two-footed, had remarkable field vision, and was noted for his balance and agility on the ball, as well as his control, turns and spins.
His trademark goals were ones where he would collect the ball at the half-line, dribble through several opponents with a series of twinkle-toed shuffles, and turns, until arriving in front of the goal, where he would stop and invite the goalkeeper to attack him like a matador, before faking a shot, then dribbling past the beaten goalkeeper to slot home easily. "Gol alla Meazza" and "finte alla Meazza" have since become popular sayings for Italian football fans to describe a truly inspiring goal off the dribble or a series of jukes. His goals "ad invito", where he would invite the goalkeeper out before dribbling around him is yet another popular saying. An accurate penalty taker, Meazza once said, "There is nothing worse than having a penalty kick saved by a keeper who didn't understand the fake." called him "Il Folber", and dubbed his style of play the "fasso-tuto-mi", because he considered him to be the complete central midfielder and a nimble acrobat. When describing Meazza, Brera said: "He was only Italian that stood out amongst the sensational Brazilians and Argentines". Following Meazza's death in 1979, Brera also added: "The world was full of great football players, maybe some even tougher and more consistent than him, but to us it seemed that one could not go beyond his sudden inventions, his ingenious runs, his peremptory yet never condescending dribbling, his solo break-away runs towards the usual stray victim, the opposing goalkeeper."
Peppino Prisco, who became vice-president of Inter Milan in 1963 and won every major trophy possible with the club, also considered Meazza to be the best player of all time, and said of him: "Meazza was great, unbeatable, even if he would occasionally run into a frightful crisis, caused by his intense sexual activity and his passion for the game. When he took over on the field, he did things that left the mouth ajar."
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Season
!rowspan="2"|Club
! colspan="3" |League
!colspan="2"|Cup
!colspan="2"|Europe
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division
!width="40"|Apps
!width="40"|Goals
!width="40"|Apps
!width="40"|Goals
!width="40"|Apps
!width="40"|Goals
!width="40"|Apps
!width="40"|Goals
!width="40"|Apps
!width="40"|Goals
|-
|rowspan="14"|Inter Milan
|1927–28
|Divisione Nazionale
|33||12||||||||||||||33||12
|-
|1928–29
|Divisione Nazionale
|29||33||||||||||1||0||30||33
|-
|1929–30
|Serie A
|33||31||||||||||6||7||39||38
|-
|1930–31
|Serie A
|34||24||||||||||||||34||24
|-
|1931–32
|Serie A
|28||21||||||||||||||28||21
|-
|1932–33
|Serie A
|32||20||||||||||||||32||20
|-
|1933–34
|Serie A
|32||21||||||||||6||5||38||26
|-
|1934–35
|Serie A
|30||19|| ||||||||2||3||32||22
|-
|1935–36
|Serie A
|29||25||2||1||||||2||2||33||28
|-
|1936–37
|Serie A
|26||11||4||3||||||6||10||36||24
|-
|1937–38
|Serie A
|26||20||4||8||||||||||30||28
|-
|1938–39
|Serie A
|16||4||6||0||||||4||2||26||6
|-
|1939–40
|Serie A
|0||0|| ||||||||1||0||1||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!348!!240!!16!!12!!!!!!28!!29!!391!!282
|-
|rowspan="2"|Milan
|1940–41
|Serie A
||14||6||1||0||||||||||15||6
|-
|1941–42
|Serie A
|23||3||4||2||||||||||27||5
|-
|Juventus
|1942–43
|Serie A
|27||10||||||||||||||27||10
|-
|Varese
|1944
|Alta Italia
|20||7||||||||||||||20||7
|-
|Atalanta
|1945–46
|Divisione Nazionale
|14||2||||||||||||||14||2
|-
|Inter Milan
|1946–47
|Serie A
|17||2||||||||||||||17||2
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!463!!270!!21!!14!!!!!!28!!29!!511!!314
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="10"|Italy
|1930||5||6
|-
|1931||6||5
|-
|1932||4||2
|-
|1933||5||5
|-
|1934||9||7
|-
|1935||3||2
|-
|1936||4||2
|-
|1937||5||1
|-
|1938||6||3
|-
|1939||6||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!53!!33
|}
:Scores and results list Italy's goal tally first, the score column indicates the score after each Meazza goal.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of international goals scored by Giuseppe Meazza
|-
!scope="col"|No.
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Venue
!scope="col"|Opponent
!scope="col"|Score
!scope="col"|Result
!scope="col"|Competition
|-
|align="center"|1||rowspan="2"|9 February 1930||rowspan="2"|Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy||rowspan="2"||| ||rowspan="2" align="center"|4–2|| rowspan="2" |Friendly
|-
|align="center"|2||
|-
|align="center"|3||2 March 1930||Waldstadion, Frankfurt, Germany||||||align="center"|2–0
|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|4||rowspan="3"|11 May 1930||rowspan="3"|Üllői úti stadion, Budapest, Hungary||rowspan="3"|||||rowspan="3" align="center"|5–0||rowspan="3"|1927-30 Central European International Cup
|-
|align="center"|5||
|-
|align="center"|6||
|-
|align="center"|7||rowspan="3"|25 January 1931||rowspan="3"|Stadio Littoriale, Bologna, Italy||rowspan="3"|||||rowspan="3" align="center"|5–0||rowspan="3"|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|8||
|-
|align="center"|9||
|-
|align="center"|10||22 February 1931||San Siro, Milan, Italy||||||align="center"|2–1||1931-32 Central European International Cup
|-
|align="center"|11||20 May 1931||Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy||||||align="center"|3–0||Friendly
|-
|align="center"|12||20 March 1932||Praterstadion, Vienna, Austria||||||align="center"|1–2||1931-32 Central European International Cup
|-
|align="center"|13||27 November 1932||San Siro, Milan, Italy||||||align="center"|4–2||Friendly
|-
|align="center"|14||1 January 1933||Stadio Littoriale, Bologna, Italy||||||align="center"|3–1
|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|15||rowspan="2"|12 February 1933||rowspan="2"|King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium||rowspan="2"|||||rowspan="2" align="center"|3–2
| rowspan="2" |Friendly
|-
|align="center"|16||
|-
|align="center"|17||2 April 1933||Charmilles Stadium, Geneva, Switzerland||||||align="center"|3–0||1933-35 Central European International Cup
|-
|align="center"|18||3 December 1933||Stadio Comunale, Florence, Italy||||||align="center"|5–2
|1933-35 Central European International Cup
|-
|align="center"|19||rowspan="2"|25 March 1934||rowspan="2"|San Siro, Milan, Italy|| rowspan="2" |||||rowspan="2" align="center"|4–0||rowspan="2"|1934 FIFA World Cup qualifier
|-
|align="center"|20||
|-
|align="center"|21||27 May 1934||Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy||||||align="center"|7–1||1934 FIFA World Cup
|-
|align="center"|22||1 June 1934||Stadio Comunale, Florence, Italy||||||align="center"|1–0||1934 FIFA World Cup
|-
|align="center"|23||rowspan="2"|14 November 1934||rowspan="2"|Highbury stadium, London, England||rowspan="2"|||||rowspan="2" align="center"|2–3|| rowspan="2" |Friendly
|-
|align="center"|24||
|-
|align="center"|25||9 December 1934||San Siro, Milan, Italy||||||align="center"|4–2
|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|26||rowspan="2"|17 February 1935||rowspan="2"|Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy|| rowspan="2" |||||rowspan="2" align="center"|2–1
| rowspan="2" |Friendly
|-
|align="center"|27||
|-
|align="center"|28||31 May 1936||Hungária körúti stadion, Budapest, Hungary||||||align="center"|2–1
|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|29||25 October 1936||San Siro, Milan, Italy||||||align="center"|4–2||1936-38 Central European International Cup
|-
|align="center"|30||27 May 1937||Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway||||||align="center"|3–1||Friendly
|-
|align="center"|31||15 May 1938||San Siro, Milan, Italy||||||align="center"|6–1
|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|32||22 May 1938||Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa, Italy||||||align="center"|4–0
|Friendly
|-
|align="center"|33||16 June 1938||Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France||||||align="center"|2–1||1938 FIFA World Cup
|}
Honours
Inter Milan
- Serie A: 1929–30, 1937–38, 1939–40
- Coppa Italia: 1938–39
Italy
- Mitropa Cup top goalscorer: 1930, 1933, 1936
- FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 1934
- FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1938
- International Football Hall of Champions: Inducted in 2001
- Inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame (posthumous honour, 2011)
- Inducted into the Walk of Fame of Italian sport: 2015
- Inter Milan Hall of Fame: 2019
- Guerin Sportivo Player of the Century (posthumous honour, 1999): 5th
Trivia
- Meazza was one of the first Italians to coach abroad, coaching Beşiktaş J.K. of Turkey in 1948–49.
- While serving as a youth coach for Inter, he met Sandro Mazzola. Understanding the boy's pain at losing a father while so young and recognising his skills, Meazza took young Sandro under his wing, and convinced him to sign for Inter. This is however controversial, as the honour of having brought Sandro and his brother Ferruccio Mazzola to Inter is also attributed to an Inter player of the time, Benito "Veleno" Lorenzi, who was a friend and fellow Italian international to the boys' father, Torino legend Valentino Mazzola.
- Meazza is a FIFA Hall of Champions Inductee and Italian Football Hall of Fame Entrant. He was selected by IFFHS/FIFA as the 2nd Best Italian player as one of the best 25 World Players of the 20th Century, and was also selected to Italy's Sports Walk of Fame in 2015.
- Meazza is still today the joint-fourth top-scorer ever in Serie A along with José Altafini.
- Many Italian football experts, including Alberto Giocattoli, consider him to be the best player ever, and even Silvio Piola was quoted saying: "He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest Italian footballers ever. He is a symbol to our great country and we should cherish him."
- With 33 goals, Meazza remains of the Italy national team its second highest scorer. His record stood until Gigi Riva tied and eventually broke it on 9 June 1973, also in a game against Brazil. On that day, Meazza was quoted as saying, "That Riva is good, he scored a lot of goals against Cyprus and Turkey. Surely my goals were much more important."
- The San Siro stadium of Milan, which hosts two of Meazza's former clubs, Inter Milan and A.C. Milan, was renamed the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in his honour.