Gigi Meroni
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Luigi Meroni | ||
| Date of birth | 24 February 1943 | ||
| Place of birth | Como, Italy | ||
| Date of death | 15 October 1967 (aged 24) | ||
| Place of death | Turin, Italy | ||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | ||
| Playing position | Winger | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 19??–1960 | Libertas San Bartolomeo | ||
| 1960–1961 | Como | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1960–1962 | Como | 25 | (3) |
| 1962–1964 | Genoa | 42 | (7) |
| 1964–1967 | Torino | 103 | (22) |
| Total | 170 | (32) | |
| National team | |||
| 1964 | Italia B | 2 | (1) |
| 1966–1967 | Italy | 6 | (2) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Luigi "Gigi" Meroni (24 February 1943 – 15 October 1967) was an Italian professional footballer who played as a winger.
He played 145 matches in Serie A, scoring 29 goals. At international level, he represented Italy on six occasions between 1966 and 1967, scoring two goals, and took part at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
Meroni began playing football in a small courtyard of 60 square meters, and then moved to the field of the Oratorio di San Bartolomeo in Como. From the age of two he had lost his father, and his mother Rosa, a professional weaver, had financial difficulties raising three children: Celestino, Luigi (called Luigino, then Gigi) and Maria. His first job was as a designer of silk neckties, he also devoted himself to painting.
His football career began in the Como youth sector, where he also made his debut for the first team, albeit in the second division. He was then sold to Genoa. In the shadow of the Lanterna, Meroni had moments of great notoriety. The "magic" threatened to crack on the last match of the season, when Meroni refused to undergo examinations for doping control, saying that he had forgotten the test in a hotel. Three other players tested positive for amphetamines and Meroni was suspended for the first five rounds of Serie A in 1963.
In 1964, despite the discontent of the Genoa fans, Meroni was sold to Torino, a team coached by Nereo Rocco and on the rise after the decline following the tragedy of Superga. The transfer fee was 300 million lira, a record at the time for a player of only 21 years of age.
He was nicknamed la farfalla granata the "maroon butterfly", with reference to his style of play and anticonformist outfits (he was notorious for his cohabitation as husband and wife with a young divorcee, Cristiana Uderstadt), and the "beatnik del gol" (the beatnik of goal) for his artistic interests and hippie lifestyle.
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