Mario Perazzolo (; 7 June 1911 – 3 August 2001) 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 ...

who played as a defender, 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 ...

or as a forward.

Club career

During his career Perazzolo played for

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

and

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

before moving to

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

, where he spent most of his career; he later also played for

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

and Siracusa. Like many great players Mario evolved technically. He started his career as an

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, a position he played for five years at Padova and three at Fiorentina. He later switched to centre-half and half-back where he played his best seasons for

. For the national team, he also played in Meazza's position in an outing just after the team had won the 1936 Olympic title, subsequently switching to a midfield position as the World Cup approached. He was a starter in their final warm up before leaving for Paris, however Pozzo decided to go with Serantoni instead. He would win another six caps with the national team. At nearly forty years of age he played his last season at Siracusa in Serie B having won the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

and the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

with Genoa.

International career

Perazzolo was part of the

1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. Italy defended its title in the final, bea ...

-winning squad, Italy's second World Cup title. He earned 8 caps for the

Italian national 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 ...

in the 1930s between 1936 and 1939.Italy - International Matches 1930-1939 - RSSSF.com
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Death

Perazzolo died on 3 August 2001 in Padua, aged 90.

Honours

Club

;Genoa *

: 1936–37

International

;Italy *

: 1938

References

1911 births 2001 deaths Italian footballers Italy international footballers 1938 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players Genoa C.F.C. players Sportspeople from Padua Calcio Padova players ACF Fiorentina players Brescia Calcio players A.S. Siracusa players Serie A players Italian football managers Calcio Padova managers A.S. Siracusa managers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football forwards Footballers from Veneto {{Italy-footy-bio-stub