Emanuele Curcio (born 3 May 1953) is an Italian former professional

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 ...

who played as a winger. He made 15 appearances for Roma in the

1974–75 Serie A The 1974–75 Serie A season was won by Juventus. Teams Varese, Ascoli and Ternana had been promoted from Serie B while Foggia and Genoa was relegated but Verona was disqualified to Serie B. Final classification Results Top goalscorers ...

season, scoring twice, and played 71 times in

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

for Messina and Cosenza.

Life and career

Curcio was born in 1953 in Sant'Angelo di Brolo, in the

Province of Messina Messina (, ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital was the city of Messina. It was replaced by the Metropolitan City of Messina. Geography Territory It had an area of , which amounts to 12.6 percent ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. As a youngster, he played local football for Orlandina before joining Messina, where he made his senior debut on the opening day of the

1972–73 Serie C The 1972–73 Serie C was the thirty-fifth edition of Serie C, the third highest league in the Italian football league system. Girone A Girone B Girone C References and sources *''Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio – La Storia 1898–2004 ...

season in the starting eleven for a goalless draw away to

Trani Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the fir ...

. Curcio finished the season with 13 appearances as his team were relegated, but the following season scored four goals from 23 appearances as Messina won their section of

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

. His performances earned the 21-year-old Curcio a move to Roma of

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 Cop ...

. Head coach

Nils Liedholm Nils Erik Liedholm (; 8 October 1922 – 5 November 2007) was a Swedish football midfielder and coach. ''Il Barone'' (The Baron), as he is affectionately known in Italy, was renowned for being part of the Swedish "Gre-No-Li" trio of strikers al ...

gave him his debut as a second-half substitute on the opening day of the 1974–75 season in a 1–0 defeat away to

Torino Turin ( , 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 from 1861 to 1865. T ...

; his introduction livened up the attack, but made no difference to the score. He made two more appearances in 1974 and, after some muscle problems, made an unexpected return to the first team for the visit to

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thr ...

on 5 January 1975. Demonstrating pace, trickery and clean shooting, he scored both goals in a 2–0 win that extended Roma's winning run to five and earned him a run in the side. He finished the season with 15 appearances from a possible 30, but no more goals. Because of industrial action, the regular football highlights were not broadcast for the weekend of Curcio's goals against Vicenza. However, film still existed in the archives, and in 2011, Curcio was a guest on

Rai 2 Rai 2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's second television channel, and is known for broadcasting ''TG2'' news bulletins, tal ...

's when his goals were aired for the first time. Curcio joined Alessandria at the start of the 1975–76 season, but in three months he played twice in the Coppa Italia Semiprofessionisti and not at all in

. Interviewed some 40 years later, he recalled believing he was not good enough, and that Roma's reasoning for moving him on was that with him in the team, they finished third, but with someone better in his place, they could win the title. In November, he joined another Serie C side, Cosenza, where he played more regularly. He scored three goals from 58 appearances over 18 months in Serie C, and a further six goals from 21 appearances in Serie D in 1977–78, after which he returned to Sicily and completed his football career with Ragusa in Serie C2 and

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an imp ...

in Serie D. At 28, he retired from football and settled in

Capo d'Orlando Capo d'Orlando ( scn, Capu d'Orlannu) is a in the Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily, southern Italy, one of the main centers of the mountain and coastal Nebrodi area. History After the destruction of the Greek colony of Agathyrnum ...

, Messina, where he took up coaching

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. Initially he taught his daughters, but then opened a gym where other young girls could train, and the ASD Gymnasium Ginnastica Artistica expanded into a training centre "looking more like a theme park than a gym" with 150 girls of all ages.

References

External links

Profile and links to match details
at ''Almanacco GialloRosso'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Curcio, Emanuele 1953 births Living people Italian men's footballers Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Messina Men's association football wingers ACR Messina players AS Roma players US Alessandria Calcio 1912 players Cosenza Calcio 1914 players SSD FC Trapani 1905 players Serie A players Serie C players Serie D players Footballers from Sicily