Luigi Di Franco (born 18 November 1918, date of death unknown) 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 ...

Biography

Playing as a left winger, Di Franco played in the Yugoslav Championship with SK Jedinstvo Belgrade where he got first registered at January 1937 and played until 1941. In 1941, he moved to a more popular

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

club

SK Jugoslavija Sportski klub Jugoslavija ( en, Sport Club Yugoslavia), commonly known as SK Jugoslavija (Serbian Cyrillic: Cпортски клуб Југославија) was a Serbian football club from Belgrade. It was originally formed as SK Velika Srbija ( ...

. With the beginning of the

Second World War 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 ...

, the national league was divided, and Di Franco (spelled as ''Di Franko'' or ''Difranko'' in the Serbian press) finished second with SK Jugoslavija in the 1940–41 season. With the

Axis invasion of Yugoslavia An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis *Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...

, Di Franco returned to Italy, signing with the

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

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

. They finished the 1942–43 season at 13th place. At the end of the war, in 1945, Di Franco signed with Mestrina, which was playing in the

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 ...

. However, at the end of the 1946–47 season, they were relegated to

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 ...

. Luigi Di Franco stayed with Mestrina until 1949. Di Franco moved to Colombia to become player-manager of

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several ...

during the 1949 and 1950 seasons. Di Franco is deceased.

References

External links

Luigi Di Franco
at enciclopediadelcalcio.it {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Franco, Luigi 1918 births Year of death missing Footballers from Rome Italian men's footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders SK Jedinstvo Beograd players SK Jugoslavija players Expatriate men's footballers in Yugoslavia Venezia FC players Serie A players Serie B players Deportivo Pereira footballers Categoría Primera A players Italian expatriate sportspeople in Yugoslavia Italian expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Expatriate football managers in Colombia Italian football managers Deportivo Pereira managers