Carlo Parola (; 20 September 1921 – 22 March 2000), 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 ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

who played as a defender. Throughout his career, he won domestic titles with Italian club

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

, both as a player and as a manager. At international level, he took part at the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

with the Italy national team.

Career

Parola was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. He is mostly known for his time with

with whom he played over 300 games between 1939 and 1954, winning two

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 ...

titles and a

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, and even serving as the club's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

from 1949 onwards. He also had brief spells with

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and

Midland Midland may refer to: Places Australia * Midland, Western Australia Canada * Midland, Albert County, New Brunswick * Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick * Midland, Newfoundland and Labrador * Midland, Ontario India * Midland Ward, Kohima, Nagal ...

in Argentina, before going into management. At international level, he was capped for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

on 10 occasions between 1945 and 1950, and represented his country at the

. As a coach, he managed several Italian clubs throughout his career, and had spells with Anconitana,

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

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

. He won the Serie A title during his second spell as Juventus's coach in 1975, a title he had previously also won as a player for the club.

Style of play

A quick, mobile, hard-working, versatile, and powerful player, with good technique, Parola was capable of playing both as a defender and as a

defensive Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, due to his strength, stamina, and man-marking, which led him to be regarded as one of Italy's greatest defenders. Under his manager

Felice Borel Felice Placido Borel (; 5 April 1914 – 21 January 1993) was an Italian football player who played as a striker. He was a member of the Italy national football team that won the 1934 FIFA World Cup. Club career Borel was born in Nice, France. ...

in the WM system, known as ''sistema'' in Italy, he often played as a

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

-back, a position which was known as the ''centromediano metodista'' role in Italian football jargon, due to its association with the '' metodo'' system. In this position, he was given both defensive and creative duties, functioning as both a ball–winner who was tasked with retreating into defence to mark opposing forwards, and also as a

deep-lying playmaker A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

after winning back the ball, a position which led to the development of the

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (''Pempheris xanth ...

, or ''libero'' role. He was also capable of playing as a man–marking

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, or ''stopper'', and as a full-back. He was also known to be fair player, although because of this, some in the sport accused him of not being aggressive or tenacious enough in his tackling; as such, manager Vittorio Pozzo often preferred to use

Mario Rigamonti Mario Rigamonti (; 17 December 1922 – 4 May 1949) was an Italian football player, who played as a central defender for Torino F.C. and the Italy national football team. He died in the Superga air disaster together with the whole ''Grande Tori ...

in the holding midfield role with the Italian national team. An agile and athletic player, in addition to his defensive skills, he was also known for his skill in the air, and ability to score goals with acrobatic strikes, from volleys and bicycle kicks, having played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

in his youth; indeed, during the 1940s, he popularised the use of the bicycle kick in Italy, earning the nickname ''Signor Rovesciata'' ("Mr. Overhead Kick"), and was even credited with its invention by the Italians. As a youngster, Parola also played in several other positions, including the roles of

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, winger, and centre-forward.

Legacy

Known for his acrobatic volleys and spectacular overhead kicks, a famous picture of Parola executing a bicycle kick was adopted as the logo of '' Panini Group''.