Renato Gandolfi (17 November 1927 – 30 April 2011) was an Italian 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 le ...

who played as a

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 ...

.Il Grande Toro arriva in tivù. Gandolfi: 'Mi salvò il destino'
''

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...

'', 24 settembre 2005, pag.9 - sez. Genova

Club career

He entered the

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 ...

youth team in 1940,Uno schianto e finì il Grande Torino, Gandolfi ringrazia quella sostituzione
''

La Gazzetta dello Sport ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018). History and profile ''La ...

'', 27 December 1998 then was loaned to Carrarese for two seasons, 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 ...

. Back in Turin, he was part of the ''Grande Torino'' in the 1948–49 season as the reserve goalkeeper: second to

Valerio Bacigalupo Valerio Bacigalupo (; 12 February 1924 – 4 May 1949) was an Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Vado Ligure, he began his career with Savona. After a brief spell at Genoa, he moved to Torino in 1945, where he won four Ser ...

and held back by a broken

collarbone The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the right ...

. He played two games in that season's

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 ...

, playing as a starter on 28 November 1948 against

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to as Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Originally founded in 1918, the club has been re-established several times in its history. As of the ...

. During a trip to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, he was forced to leave his place to

Dino Ballarin Dino Ballarin (23 September 1925 – 4 May 1949) was an Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career He arrived at Torino in 1947, the team in which his brother, Aldo Ballarin, played as a defender. Dino arrived from the amateurs n ...

, the third goalkeeper, under pressure from his brother Aldo: this prevented him from dying in the

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino football team (popularly known as the ''Grande Torino''), crashed into the retaining wall at the back of th ...

. He remained at Torino with the only other surviving player,

Sauro Tomà Sauro Tomà (4 December 1925 – 10 April 2018) was an Italian footballer who played as a full-back. Tomà began his career with Rapallo Ruentes. After playing for Vogherese and Spezia, he joined Torino in 1947, where he won two Serie A title ...

, the reserve of

Giuseppe Moro Giuseppe "Bepi" Moro (; 16 January 1921 – 28 January 1974) was an Italian Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. An eccentric and athletic player, who was also an excellent shot-stopper, h ...

in the league from 1948–49, and in 1950 was sold to

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 ...

, in

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 ...

.Karl Ange Hansen è rientrato in Italia
''

La Stampa ''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. History and profile The paper was fou ...

'', 15 August 1950, pag.4 With Legnano he won promotion to Serie A and provided particularly adept at parrying penalty kicks: in the 1951–52 season he parried five. In 1952 came back down to Serie B with

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, winning another promotion to Serie A as the reserve of Angelo Franzosi; he debuted with the ''rossoblu'' due to Franzosi's injury, in the heat of a match between Genoa and Legnano of 5 April 1953. In subsequent seasons Genoa loaned him first to Legnano, in Serie A, and then in December 1954,

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

, where he was never used and deployed only in reserves. Finally he returned to Genoa, where he confirmed his reputation as a skilled goalkeeper on penalty kicks, parrying, among others, a penalty in a decisive game for salvation against

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, in the 1957–58 season. He totalled 118 appearances in

Honours

; Torino *

: 1948–49 ; Genoa *

: 1952–53

Bibliography

References

External links

Gandolfi on enciclopediadelcalcio.itStatistics on Archiviotoro.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandolfi, Renato Italian footballers Torino F.C. players 1925 births 2011 deaths Association football goalkeepers