Héctor "Ettore" Puricelli (; 15 September 1916 – 14 May 2001) was a

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 and manager who played as a striker. Born in Uruguay, he represented

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 ...

at international level. As a player, he is most famous for his time with Italian clubs

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. A prolific goalscorer, he was known for his ability in the air, which earned him the nickname "testina d'oro" ("golden little head," in Italian).

Career

After playing for his hometown side

Central Español Central Español Fútbol Club, usually known simply as Central Español is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. History The F.U.F era Together with Peñarol, Central founded FUF (Uruguayan football federation) in 1923 after being expel ...

from Montevideo, Puricelli decided to move from Uruguay to Italy in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

to play for

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 ...

side

. The club were going through a good spell in their history and with goals from Puricelli they were able to continue that; in his first season they won the Italian championship of 1938–39. In his first season Puricelli was joint-'' capcannoniere'' (top scorer) in Serie A, along with Aldo Boffi of

, with 19 goals. He repeated this feat in 1940–41 with 22 goals, also winning his second league title with Bologna that season. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Puricelli joined Milan and although his goalscoring record continued in healthy fashion, the club did not capture the league championship; the nearest they came during this period was runners-up in 1947–48, serving as the team'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 ...

. He ended his playing career with

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the north-westernmost part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Le ...

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 ...

still prolific in his goalscoring.

Honours

Player

Club

;Bologna *

: 1938–39, 1940–41

Individual

Capocannoniere The ''Capocannoniere'' award (; literally "head gunner"), known as Paolo Rossi Award1938–39, 1940–41

Manager

;A.C. Milan *

: 1954–55

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puricelli, Ettore 1916 births 2001 deaths Italian footballers Association football forwards Club Atlético River Plate (Montevideo) players Central Español players A.C. Milan players Bologna F.C. 1909 players A.C. Legnano players Serie A players Serie B players Italy international footballers Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan footballers Uruguayan people of Italian descent Uruguayan football managers A.C. Milan managers Palermo F.C. managers FC Porto managers U.S. Salernitana 1919 managers Atalanta B.C. managers U.S. Alessandria Calcio 1912 managers Cagliari Calcio managers L.R. Vicenza managers Genoa C.F.C. managers