Guglielmo Gabetto
- Dag Jenkins
- Nov 19
- 2 min read
Guglielmo Antonio Gabetto was born in Turin, on February 24, 1916.
He started his career with Juventus. He debuted for the Bianconeri in 1934 and went on to play 191 games and score 102 goals (86 in A). He won a Scudetto in 1935, under manager Carlo Carcano and then Carlo Bigatto and a Coppa Italia in 1938, under Virginio Rosetta.
In 1941 he switched allegiances in Turin and joined Torino. He had done well with the Bianconeri and he did even better with the Granata.
In eight seasons (5 in A due to WW2) he played 225 games and scored 127 goals (80 in A in 158 appearances). He was part of the Grande Torino who dominated Italian football in that period. The Granata won five consecutive league titles (excluding the war interruption) in 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949. The managers were Antonio Janni (1943), Luigi Ferrero (1945, '46, '47) and Mario Sperone (1948 with Roberto Copernico as T.D) and finally Leslie Lievesley and then Oberdan Ussello (1949).
It was a great team with the likes of legends such as: goalkeeper Valerio Bacigalupo, defenders Aldo Ballarin, Virgilio Moroso and Mario Rigamonti, midfielders Giuseppe Grezar and Eusebio Castigliano, wingers Franco Ossola and Ezio Loik, forwards Valentino Mazzola, Romeo Menti and Pietro Ferraris to name a few.
Disaster struck on May 4 1949. On the way back from a friendly game in Lisbon the plane carrying the Torino squad, directors and journalists crashed into the Superga hill overlooking the Piedmontese capital. All the 31 passengers on board were killed. The causes were attributed to adverse weather conditions, especially very strong winds.
A huge tragedy for Torino and Italian football. A similar awful destiny would sadly await Manchester United in 1958.
Gabetto died at 33. He is considered one of the best forwards in Italian history. He scored 231 goals in 416 appearances. He also won 6 caps for Italy with 5 goals.
Gabetto was an all-round forward. He was 1.74 and 70 kilos and was quick with explosive acceleration and dribbling skills but also with excellent acrobatic ability. He was famous for scoring "impossible" goals, a fact that earned him the nickname "La Santa Rita dei goleador" (Santa Rita was renowned for her miracles). Other nicknames were "Il Barone" for his elegance and slicked back hair while for the fans he was Gabe. There would later be two more Barone characters, Nils Liedholm and Franco Causio.
He is a legend at Juventus and even more so at Torino. He is still 9th in Juventus' all time Serie A scorers and 5th for Torino.
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