Carlo Castellani (15 January 1909 – 11 August 1944) was an Italian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker for

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

and Viareggio Calcio. He was deported to

Gusen concentration camp Gusen was a subcamp of Mauthausen concentration camp operated by the SS () between the villages of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen and Langestein in the Reichsgau Ostmark (currently Perg District, Upper Austria). Primarily populated by Polish priso ...

in early 1944 in place of his anti-fascist father, and died there on 11 August 1944, aged 35.

Life and career

Castellani was born on 15 January 1909 in ,

Montelupo Fiorentino Montelupo Fiorentino is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence. Geography The area is predominantly hilly and is crossed by the river Pesa that, particu ...

. He started his footballing career at

, making his Terza Divisione debut on 7 November 1926, and helped the club to promotion to the

Seconda Divisione Seconda Divisione (''Second Division'') was the name of the second level of the Italian Football Championship from 1921 to 1926. The competition was initially founded in opposition to the FIGC by the clubs of Northern Italy, which disagreed the o ...

that season. He stayed at the club until 1930, when he joined

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

. He scored 3 in 25 games in the 1930–31 season as Livorno were relegated to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

. He transferred to Viareggio Calcio in 1933 before returning to Empoli in 1934. In total, he scored 61 goals in 145 matches for Empoli across his two spells at the club, making him their highest scoring player until 2011, when he was overtaken by

Francesco Tavano Francesco "Ciccio" Tavano (born 2 March 1979) is an Italian football coach and former striker. He is currently in charge as head coach of Eccellenza amateurs Tuttocuoio. Playing career Tavano started his professional career with Pisa, before ...

. He retired from football in 1940 and continued to live in his birth town of Fibbiana, where he owned a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. He continued to support Empoli financially after his retirement as a player. Castellani's father was a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and vocal critic of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

and

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and as a result, following strikes at a nearby glass factory, the occupying German forces looked to arrest his father. As his father was ill at the time, Castellani volunteered to go in his father's place in the belief that he would be sent to a nearby barracks where he could explain the situation. Castellani was instead taken to the railway station in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

from where he was deported to

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

. He was transferred to

, where he died of

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

on 11 August 1944. In 1965, Empoli named their newly-built stadium

Stadio Carlo Castellani The Stadio comunale Carlo Castellani is a multi-purpose stadium in Empoli, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and the home of Empoli F.C. The stadium holds 16,284. Built in 1923, the Stadio Carlo Castellani is currently t ...

in memory of Castellani.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellani, Carlo 1909 births 1944 deaths Italian men's footballers People from Montelupo Fiorentino Footballers from the Metropolitan City of Florence Men's association football forwards Empoli FC players US Livorno 1915 players ASD Viareggio Calcio players Serie A players Serie B players Italian people who died in Mauthausen concentration camp Deaths from dysentery