Ernesto Bernardo "Tito" Cucchiaroni (16 November 1927 – 4 July 1971) was an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player, born in Posadas,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, who last played as a left winger for Italian club

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

. During his time in Italy, he won the

1956–57 Serie A The 1956–57 Serie A season was won by Milan. Teams Udinese and Palermo had been promoted from Serie B. Final classification Results Top goalscorers References and sources *''Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004'', Pan ...

title with A.C. Milan. At international level, he won the

1955 South American Championship The South American Championship 1955 was a football tournament held in Chile and won by Argentina with Chile as runners-up. Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia withdrew from the tournament. Rodolfo Micheli from Argentina became top scorer of the tourn ...

with the

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in men's international football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, the governing body for football in Argentina. Nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' ('The White and S ...

Club career

Cucchiaroni was born in the Argentine city of Posadas. He started his playing career with

Rivadavia de Lincoln Club Rivadavia is an Argentine football club from Lincoln, Buenos Aires. The squad currently plays in Torneo Argentino A, the regionalised third division of the Argentine football league system. At the end of the 2005–06 season Rivadavia was p ...

before leaving at the age of 22 to join Club Atlético Tigre.Gowarzewski, Andrew. ''FUJI Football Encyclopedia (Volume 13): Copa America'', published by GIA, Katowice 1995, , p. 105, 108-109 After spending five years at Tigre, Cucchiaroni moved to

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

where he spent a further two years playing under

Jaime Sarlanga Jaime Sarlanga (February 24, 1916 – August 24, 1966) was an Argentine football forward. He played most of his career for Boca Juniors where he won 7 titles and scored 115 league goals, making him the 5th. highest goalscorer in club's history. ...

, and Mario Fortunato in 1955 and 1956 respectively. It wasn't long before Cucchiaroni caught the eyes of overseas interest and in 1956, he was picked up by Italian giants A.C. Milan. His first season for Milan was fairly productive, doing 27 league appearances and 4 goals whilst also playing a further 5 games (scoring once) in the

European Champion Clubs' Cup The European Champion Clubs' Cup, also known as Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens, or simply the European Cup, is a trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the football club that wins the UEFA Champions League. The competition in its older format ...

. Cucchiaroni's second season however was not so productive only appearing 13 times and scoring twice. In June, 1958 Cucchiaroni transferred from Milan to

where he spent the remainder of his career. He retired in June 1963 after accumulating 138 league appearances and 40 goals.

International career

In 1956, Cucchiaroni was selected for

in the South American Championship. Argentina went on to the final where they beat

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

1–0. All up, Cucchiaroni made 11 appearances for the Argentina without scoring.

Honours

Club

;A.C. Milan *

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 ...

Winner (1): 1956–57

International

;Argentina * South American Championship (Copa América) Winner (1):

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cucchiaroni, Ernesto 1927 births 1971 deaths Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers Men's association football wingers Club Atlético Tigre footballers Boca Juniors footballers AC Milan players UC Sampdoria players Club Atlético Huracán managers Argentine football managers Footballers from Posadas, Misiones