Gino Cappello (; 2 June 1920 – 28 March 1990) 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

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Club career

A native of

Padua 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 ...

, Cappello began his career with Padova. After spending two seasons with the club 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 ...

, he landed 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 Coppa ...

with

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 ...

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

. In the three seasons at Milan he was always the second leading scorer and unfortunately Milan was not a major title-contender at the time. After the war he went to

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

where he played for ten straight seasons. He scored 80 goals in 245 games leaving a mark on the fans not to be forgotten. In his last two seasons he played for

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

in Serie B. In 1958, when he was still playing with Novara, he decided to retire having reached the age of forty.

International career

Cappello debuted 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 ...

on 22 May 1949 in a 3–1 win against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He was one of four players to play both games at the

1950 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 ...

. Four years later he was also called up to the national team for the

1954 World Cup Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

, where he wore the

number 10 shirt Squad numbers are used in association football to identify and distinguish players that are on the field. Numbers very soon became a way to also indicate position, with starting players being assigned numbers 1–11, although in the modern ga ...

, becoming the first Italian player to wear the iconic jersey in a World Cup as it was the first tournament which required players to wear numbers on their shirts. He played his last game for Italy in a 4–1 win against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

during the tournament.

Style of play

Despite not initially having the best technique as a youngster, Cappello later developed into a highly skilful and creative forward, who was known for his feints, close control and dribbling skills, as well as his poor work-rate and inconsistency. Initially an advanced

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativit ...

or second striker, Cappello was capable of playing anywhere along the

front-line A front line (alternatively front-line or frontline) in military terminology is the position(s) closest to the area of conflict of an armed force's personnel and equipment, usually referring to land forces. When a front (an intentional or unint ...

, on either

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

or even in the centre. An instinctive and opportunistic player, with an eye for goal, he naturally adapted to the

centre 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 ...

position; his main characteristic was to become completely separated from the game for long periods, only to suddenly pull off a crucial assist or the winning goal with one of his only shots or touches of the match. Both genius and dissolute, Gino Cappello was also known for his difficult character and lack of discipline, and obtained two lifetime bans throughout his career; one of those was given in 1952, as Cappello had punched a referee during a summer game. He served 12 months of the suspension before being absolved.

References

External links

Gino Cappello Profile at Magliarossonera.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cappello, Gino 1920 births 1990 deaths Sportspeople from Padua Italian footballers Association football forwards Calcio Padova players A.C. Milan players Bologna F.C. 1909 players Novara F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Italy international footballers 1950 FIFA World Cup players 1954 FIFA World Cup players Italy B international footballers Footballers from Veneto