Julio Libonatti (5 July 1901 – 9 October 1981) was an Italian Argentine

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and footballer who played as a forward for the

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

national teams. Born in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

, he started his career with

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

in 1917. In 1925, he became the first recorded trans-Atlantic transfer, when he moved to Italian club

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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. The city is main ...

. With 150 total goals with Torino, he is the second most prolific scorer in the history of the Torinese club after Paolo Pulici (172). He won the

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

with Torino in 1926–27 and 1927–28, although the first title was later revoked. Later in his career he also represented

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

and Libertas Rimini. Internationally, Libonatti won the 1921 South American Championship with Argentina. He later represented Italy and won the 1927–30 Central European International Cup.

Early life

He was born in

, Argentina into a

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

n family.

Club career

Libonatti started his youth career with Rosario Central, but began his professional career with the other team of his hometown,

. His prolific goal-scoring and acrobatic game led to Libonatti becoming a crowd favourite, and he was nicknamed ''Matador''. In the summer of 1925, due to an agreement that allowed the sons of Italians to take advantage of dual nationality, he moved to

. Libonatti also soon became a fan favourite in Italy. In addition to his acrobatic skills, typical of Argentine players, Libonatti had a tactical intelligence that allowed him to offer spectacular mains balls (in the future they would be called assists) to his teammates. Torino's other forward, Gino Rossetti would benefit the most from Libonatti's play. Behind the two forwards was Torino's playmaker, Adolfo Baloncieri. The three became known as the ''trio delle meraviglie'' (Trio of Wonders), and would bring Torino to win two Italian championships (one was revolved). In the 1928–29 season, the club lost a final against

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, but the attack managed to score 117 goals in 33 games. With the ''Granata'', Libonatti collected 241 appearances (239 in the league and 2 in

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

), and scored 157 goals (150 in the league seven in cup competition). In January 1935, he left Torino for

, who thanks to his contribution were able to return to the top flight. In 1937, he was hired by the Libertas Rimini, where he held the dual role of manager and player.

International career

Libonatti first played with

, winning the 1921 South American Championship as the tournament's top scorer with three goals. He collected 15 caps and 8 goals with Argentina. He then played with

, Italy's first Oriundo to play on the national team. His first appearance was on 28 October 1926, collecting a total of 18 caps and 15 goals.

Honours

Club

Torino * Divisione Nazionale/

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

: 1927–28 Genoa *

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie 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 season. It had b ...

: 1934–35

International

Argentina * South American Football Championship:

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...

Italy * Central European International Cup: 1927–30; runner-up: 1931–32

Individual

* South American Football Championship top scorer:

(3 goals) * Central European International Cup top scorer: 1927–30 (6 goals) * Serie A – Top scorer: 1927–28 (21 goals)

References

External links

international records
at

rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Libonatti, Julio 1901 births 1981 deaths Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Men's association football forwards Argentine men's footballers Italian men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players Torino FC players Genoa CFC players Newell's Old Boys footballers Argentina men's international footballers Italy men's international footballers Dual internationalists (men's football) Rimini FC 1912 players Copa América–winning players Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent 20th-century Italian sportsmen 20th-century Argentine sportsmen