Pietro Sante Arcari III (2 December 1909 – 8 February 1988) was an Italian footballer and forward, or as a

right winger 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 ...

Career

Born in

Casalpusterlengo Casalpusterlengo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Lodi in the Italian region Lombardy, located about southeast of Milan and about southeast of Lodi. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on October 3 ...

Province of Lodi The province of Lodi ( it, provincia di Lodi; Ludesan: ) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city of Lodi. As of 2017, it has a population of 229,541 inhabitants over an area of c. , giving the province ...

, he played in the 1930s for

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

, and

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 ...

. A prolific goalscorer, known for his speed and ability in the air, he played 256 matches in

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 ...

, scoring 80 goals. In the 1933–34 season, he scored 16 goals for

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, finishing the season as the fifth highest scorer in

, leading to his selection by manager

Vittorio Pozzo Vittorio Pozzo (; 2 March 1886 – 21 December 1968) was an Italian football player, manager and journalist. The creator of the '' Metodo'' tactical formation, Pozzo is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, and is the only man ...

to the national team for the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in w ...

on home soil. Italy won the title, although Arcari did not make a single appearance throughout the tournament; consequently, he is one of only four players in Italy national team history to become World champion while never being capped. While Pietro's most notable success came at Milan, an unusual incident occurred while playing for Genoa in 1937. During a Fiorentina-Genoa match won 2–1 by Genoa in Florence the linesman called a nonexistent offsides on Arcari; the referee Caironi, without hesitation sent his colleague to the locker room, who was quickly replaced. That season, he won 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 ...

, as Genoa defeated Roma 1–0 in the final, played in Florence, on 6 June 1937; en route to the final, he eliminated his former club Milan in the semi-finals of the competition.

Personal life

Pietro was the third son in a family of footballers: his older brothers Carlo Arcari and Angelo Arcari and younger brother Bruno Arcari all played football professionally. To distinguish them, Carlo was referred to as Arcari I, Angelo as Arcari II, Pietro as Arcari III and Bruno as Arcari IV. His brother Bruno, who also played for Milan throughout his career, even made an appearance for the national team.

Honours

Club

;Genoa *

: 1936–37

International

;Italy *

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 ...

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

References

External links

La Gazzetta dello Sport
1909 births 1988 deaths People from Casalpusterlengo Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Serie A players Serie B players AC Milan players Genoa CFC players US Cremonese players SSC Napoli players 1934 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Lombardy Sportspeople from the Province of Lodi {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1900s-stub