Valerio Bacigalupo (; 12 February 1924 – 4 May 1949) 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 ...

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 ...

. Born in

Vado Ligure Vado Ligure ( lij, Voæ), in antiquity Vada Sabatia, is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Savona, Liguria, in northern Italy. Economy Vado has a large industrial and commercial port. Vado Ligure is home to a railway construction plant, ...

, he began his career with

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

. After a brief spell at

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 ...

, he moved 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 ...

in 1945, where he won four

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 ...

titles. He also represented the Italy national team.

Club career

Bacigalupo started his club career with home province side

. After a brief spell at

he moved to

where he won

four times in a row.

International career

Bacigalupo was called up in the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

five times between 1947 and 1949, making his senior international debut in a 3–1 win over

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

on 14 December 1947.

Style of play

Regarded as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, Bacigalupo was a modern and world-class goalkeeper, who revolutionised his position in Italy. A precocious talent, he was known for his strong physique, reactions and excellent positional sense, as well as his athletic diving saves. In addition do being an outstanding shot-stopper, he was also a dominant goalkeeper, known for his ability to come off his line to collect crosses.

Personal life

Valerio Bacigalupo's older brother, Manlio Bacigalupo, also played professional football before 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 ...

, also serving as a goalkeeper for Genoa and Torino. Valerio died 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 ...

with most of the ''

Grande Torino The Grande Torino was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superg ...

'' team, which also formed a large part in the Italynational team at the time, which was scheduled to take part at the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

Legacy

After his death, the club where he started his career, Savona, named its ground ''Stadio Valerio Bacigalupo'' in his honour.

Honours

Torino

(4): 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49

Individual

Torino F.C. Hall of Fame This is a list of Torino FC players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame Granata. History The Hall of Fame Granata (''granata'' is the English for "maroon", the club's traditional colour) was created by the Museo del Grande Torino e della ...

: 2014

References

1924 births Italian footballers Italy international footballers Association football goalkeepers Serie A players 1949 deaths Torino F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players Sportspeople from the Province of Savona Savona F.B.C. players Footballers from Liguria Footballers killed in the Superga air disaster {{Italy-footy-goalkeeper-stub