Valentino Mazzola

Valentino Mazzola

Valentino Mazzola with Torino
Personal information
Date of birth	(1919-01-26)26 January 1919
Place of birth	Cassano d'Adda, Italy
Date of death	4 May 1949(1949-05-04) (aged 30)
Place of death	Superga, Italy
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position	Midfielder Forward
Youth career
1934–193?	Tresoldi
193?	Fara d'Adda
193?–1936	Tresoldi
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1936–1938	Tresoldi
1938–1939	Alfa Romeo	(?)	(18)
1939–1942	Venezia	61	(12)
1942–1949	Torino	195	(118)
Total		256+	(148)
National team
1942–1949	Italy	12	(4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Valentino Mazzola (Italian pronunciation: [valenˈtiːno matˈtsɔːla]; 26 January 1919 – 4 May 1949) was an Italian footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward.

Considered one of the great number 10s in the history of football and, according to some, the best Italian footballer of all time, Mazzola was the captain and symbol of the "Grande Torino", the team recognised as one of the strongest in the world during the second half of the 1940s, with whom Mazzola won five Serie A championships. He was also captain of the Italian national team for a biennium.

He became known during his spell at Venezia, where he played as a midfielder, a playing position he held throughout his career that allowed him to expand his fame beyond Italy. In his later seasons, he was considered one of the best players in Europe in his role. He died at the age of 30 in the Superga air disaster.

He was born in Cassano d'Adda, Ricetto, a neighbourhood of abandoned homes to a very modest family. His father, Alessandro, was a labourer for Azienda Torinese Mobilità and died in August 1940, hit by a truck. His mother's name was Leonina Ratti and his four brothers were Piero, Silvio, Carlo and Stefano. He had an unsettled childhood; in 1929 his father was fired from his job because of the Great Depression. To help his family, Valentino sought work the following year, just as he finished the first year of grade school. He found employment as a baker's boy, then, at age 14, the linen mill at Cassano d'Adda.