Giuseppe Meazza

Giuseppe Meazza was one of the legends of Italian football during their first great golden era in the 1930s. In Serie A he played a total of 463 games with the teams F.C. Internazionale (his main club), where he played 348 times, scoring 241 goals between 1927-40. He also played with the local rivals A.C. Milan, Juventus FC, Varese, Atalanta Bergamasca, and finally a return to Internazionale in his last season 1946-47. Domestically he won three titles with Internazionale (1930, 1938, 1940) and the Coppa Italia in 1939.

Meazza is best known for his performances for the Italian national team, the Azzurri, with whom he won both the 1934 and 1938 FIFA World Cups, captaining the side on the latter occasion. Meazza’s international career lasted from 1930 to 1939 and consisted of 53 matches in which he scored an Italian record of 33 goals, a record that lasted until 1973.

His last playing seasons were as a player-manager, firstly with Atalanta and then at Inter. He went on to become a part of the national side’s coaching team and managed Pro Patria and the Turkish team Beşiktaş before settling with Inter as coach to their youth team. Meazza’s one experience of coaching at the international level lasted two games at the 1952 Olympics where Italy crushed the USA before falling to a Hungarian side about to emerge as the “Mighty Magyars” of the 50s.

Peppin Meazza, also known as Il Balilla (The Little Boy), died two days before his 69th birthday. Since March 1980 the stadium in his native city of Milano, shared by the two clubs Internazionale and AC Milan, was named the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in his honour.