Carlo Annovazzi (; 24 May 1925 – 10 October 1980) 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, rugb ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was usually deployed as a right-sided,

central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

, or

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

, although he was also capable of playing in

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

. A large and physically imposing player, despite his deeper playing role, he was known for his eye for goal as a footballer, and was also an accurate

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

taker; during his time with A.C. Milan, he successfully converted all eight of the spot kicks he took.

Club career

Throughout his club career, Annovazzi played for A.C. Milan,

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily kno ...

, Anconitana, Pro Patria and Città di Castello. He made his

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 Cop ...

debut with Milan in a 1–1 away draw against

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label= Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and '' comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. A town, and seat o ...

on 16 December 1945. He was a member of the Milan side that won the

1950–51 Serie A The 1950–51 Serie A season was won by Milan. Teams Napoli and Udinese had been promoted from Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system ...

title, after a 44-year title drought, as well as the Coppa Latina; he contributed to the team's title success by scoring 17 goals throughout the season, 16 of which came in Serie A, and one in the Coppa Latina.

International career

At international level, Annovazzi also represented the Italy national team 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 ...

. He made his international debut in a 3–1 home win over

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

on 14 December 1947. In total, he made 17 appearances for Italy between 1947 and 1952, during a time in which most of the team was composed of players from the legendary ''

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 Super ...

'' side of the 40s, and was Italy'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 ...

between 1951 and 1952.

Honours

Milan *

: 1950–51 * Coppa Latina: 1951 Individual *A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

External links

References

1925 births 1980 deaths Italian footballers Association football midfielders Italy international footballers Serie A players Serie C players A.C. Milan players Atalanta B.C. players Aurora Pro Patria 1919 players 1950 FIFA World Cup players Footballers from Milan {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1920s-stub