A history of Lazio players at the World Cup 1930-86

Simon Basten
2 days ago
8 min read

In Lazio history there have been five World Champions, a few runners up and various stories. In the first part of this article we trace the history of Lazio player participation in the World Cup from 1930 to 1986.

1930 Uruguay

Italy were absent for this first World Cup so no Lazio players were involved. However one future Biancoceleste was there: Benedicto Zacconi, who played for Botafogo and who would join Lazio in 1935 and stay for four years (121 appearances and four goals), was selected for Brazil.

Not much luck for them as they were eliminated by Yugoslavia in the group stage. They lost the first game to the Europeans but beat Bolivia 4-0. Zacconi only played this last game.

Uruguay went on to win the Cup beating Argentina 4-2 in the final.

1934 Italy

The first European world cup was held in Italy. Fuelled by a number of “oriundi” (players of Italian original) including Luis Monti who had played in Uruguay for Argentina, Italy won beating Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra time in the final.

Lazio had their first player at the World Cup: Anfilogino Guarisi. He played for Italy despite being of Brazilian origin and was the club's first World Cup winner. Guarisi played the first game for Italy, a 7-1 thrashing of the US but then made no other appearances.

Also in the squad were future Lazio players Luigi Allemandi (2 appearances for Lazio), who played every game for Italy and joined the good side of the Tiber in 1938 at the end of his career and was also player-manager, and Attilio Ferraris IV who at the time was a Roma player but had fallen out with the club. He joined Lazio immediately after the World Cup and stayed for two seasons with 40 appearances.

1938 France

Finally Lazio had a protagonist of the World Cup: Silvio Piola. He was one of the greatest players of the time and was Italy’s centre forward.

The Azzurri won the cup beating Hungary 4-2. Piola scored five goals (two in the final) in his four matches of the tournament and was one of the many stars of the team.

Also present were Michele Andreolo, who played for Lazio in the Roman War Leagues of 1943-45 (38 appearances and four goals), who was a Bologna player at the time, and Alfredo Foni who had played for the Biancocelesti between 1929 and 1931 with 39 appearances. He was a Juventus player and became a legend at the club. All three were decisive for Italy’s win.

1950 Brazil

For this edition Lazio were represented by three players: Zeffiro Furiassi (124 appearances between 1949 and 1954), Leandro Remondini (95 appearances with 19 goals, 1947-50) and keeper Lucidio Sentimenti IV (172 appearances with 3 goals, 1949-54), all for Italy.

The Azzurri came second in the group and did not proceed. They faced Sweden and Paraguay, losing the first game and winning the second. Furiassi played both, Sentimenti IV the first and Remondini the match against Paraguay.

Also in the Italian squad were Ermes Muccinelli (93 appearances, 19 goals, at Lazio 1955-58) at Juventus at the time who played both games and scored against Sweden, Carlo Parola (7 appearances in 1954-55), a Juve legend, and Attilio Giovannini (45 appearances, 1954-56, at Inter at the time) who played the first game, plus Emilio Caprile (20 appearances, 2 goals, 1952-53) who did not play.

In the Paraguayan team there was Leoncino Unzain, who made two appearances. He arrived at Lazio in the summer and stayed a season (15 appearances, one goal).

The World Cup was won by Uruguay who beat Brazil in the final round robin.

1954 Switzerland

There were no Lazio players present in this edition but four who would later go on to play for the Biancocelesti: Muccinelli, mentioned earlier, Carlo Galli (39 appearances and 4 goals between 1963-66, who was playing for Roma at the time) and Guido Gratton for Italy (five appearances in 1961-62), plus Humberto Tozzi for Brazil. He arrived in 1956 and stayed for four years with 103 appearances and 44 goals winning the Coppa Italia in 1958.

Italy were paired with England, Switzerland and Belgium in a strange round robin where they only played two games: in the first they lost to the Swiss and in the second they beat Belgium. A playoff was needed to determine who would arrive second and qualify for the knock out stages and the Azzurri lost 4-1 to the hosts. Muccinelli played both Swiss games and Galli the first two scoring against Belgium. Gratton did not play.

Brazil qualified for the quarter finals against Hungary and Tozzi played this one game, getting sent off towards the end. This match was (in)famously known as the Battle of Berne with 42 free kicks, 2 penalties and 3 sendings off as Hungary won 4-2.

Germany won the cup beating Hungary in the final 3-2 coming back from a 2-0 deficit.

1958 Sweden

In Sweden there was one Lazio representative though soon to leave for Roma: Arne Selmosson.

Moonbeam, as he was known in Rome, was the star of the Biancoceleste team but played just one game, a goalless draw against Wales.

Sweden, coached by George Raynor, Lazio manager in 1954-55, reached the final where they were beaten 5-2 by Brazil who had a young player who was not bad at all and would turn out to have a decent career.

His name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pele.

1962 Chile

For this World Cup as well as for the next three, there were no Lazio representatives.

But there was one former Biancoceleste player: Franco Janich who had played for Lazio from 1958 to 1961 (108 appearances) and was now with Bologna. Italy were eliminated in the Group Stage and Janich played just one game, against hosts Chile, known as the Battle of Santiago, probably one of the most violent games in World Cup history, which Italy lost.

Brazil went on to win the cup beating Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final.

1966 England

Also in this World Cup Janich was the only Lazio related player. He played the last game against North Korea which Italy lost.

England won the cup beating Germany 4-2 in the final at Wembley with the help of a ghost goal.

1970 Mexico

For this World Cup there were no Lazio representatives nor former players, the only time this has happened.

Giorgio Chinaglia could have been there but did not make the final squad list.

Brazil beat Italy in the final 4-1.

1974 West Germany

Lazio were Italian champions after having almost won the scudetto the year before too. It was the team that played the best football and had done so in the past two seasons. Based also on the fact that the Italian coach, Ferruccio Valcareggi, at Mexico 70 had chosen six players from the scudetto winners Cagliari, many expected Italy to choose quite a lot of Lazio players. But in the end there were just three: Giorgio Chinaglia, Pino Wilson and Luciano Re Cecconi. Gigi Martini could have been there but he was out due to injury. Valcareggi had decided on a more “diplomatic approach”. Out of the 22 Italian players 6 were from Juventus (who had come second in 1973-74), 5 from Inter (4th), 3 from Milan (7th) and Lazio, 2 from Cagliari (10th) and Torino (5th) and one from Napoli (3rd). There was strong pressure from the Northern media to favour their players and the Gazzetta dello Sport strongly pushed Valcareggi to play with Pietro Anastasi from Juventus rather than Chinaglia. Long John was not happy.

Italy’s first game was against Haiti. But the team, slow and badly prepared, surprisingly fell behind. The Azzurri managed to score twice but Chinaglia had not received a decent ball the entire match. When Valcareggi substituted him with Anastasi in the 69th minute, Chinaglia ran back into the changing rooms blatantly telling the head coach to F off.

All hell let loose. The Northern papers jumped at the fact that they now had a culprit for a possible Italian failure. Chinaglia wanted to leave and go home, but Tommaso Maestrelli flew to Germany to convince him not to make matters worse. Long John stayed, said sorry, did not play the second game against Argentina but played the final match against Poland. Italy lost and were eliminated.

Re Cecconi did not play at all but Wilson came on as sub in the Argentina and Poland games.

West Germany became world champions by beating the Netherlands in the final 2-1.

Argentina 1978

In the controversial 1978 world cup, Italian new head coach Enzo Bearzot called up one Lazio player: Lionello Manfredonia. The club had a few young interesting players such as Bruno Giordano and Andrea Agostinelli who together with Manfredonia, had played quite a lot for the Under-21s. But only Manfredonia went to Argentina. Apparently Lionello complained that he was never taken into consideration for the first eleven, and not even for the bench. “What’s the point in bringing me if you are not going to use me?” he told Bearzot. Manfredonia made the bench for one match and was never called again, despite becoming one of the best Italian midfielders in the mid 1980s.

Italy did well and made it to the 3rd place final where they were beaten by Brazil. In that Brazilian side there was Joao Batista from Internacional who came to Lazio in 1983 and stayed for two seasons (53 appearances, 2 goals). He played in every single match (7).

Argentina won the cup beating the Netherlands 3-1 in the final.

Spain 1982

In 1980 the Totonero scandal had seen the suspension of Giordano, Manfredonia and many others, taking some of the best players away from the Nazionale. Paolo Rossi was also suspended and he came back just in time to be called up for Spain 82, ahead of Roberto Pruzzo (Roma) who had scored a lot of goals in the past years.

In Spain there were no Lazio players and just one future one: Batista. Joao however became an unfortunate protagonist. In the only match where he made an appearance, Brazil-Argentina coming on in the 83rd minute in place of Zico, after two minutes he got kicked in the stomach by Diego Maradona. Diego obviously got a red card.

Italy won the World Cup beating West Germany 3-1 in the final.

Thanks to the win, the Federation decided to cut two years suspension off all players involved in the Totonero scandal. This meant that for the 1982-83 season Giordano and Manfredonia could return to play. It ultimately allowed Lazio to return to Serie A.

Mexico 1986

Italy arrived as World Champions. There were plenty of players to choose from. Juventus had won the scudetto, but Roma and Napoli had also been protagonists of the season. Pruzzo was top scorer, Giordano had played magnificently alongside Maradona at Napoli. Both were ignored by Bearzot who decided to call most of the players who had won the World Cup four years earlier.

There were no Lazio players, but there were three connections: Giuseppe Galderisi for Italy, Michael Laudrup for Denmark and Nelson Gutiérrez for Uruguay.

Galderisi, who played for Lazio in 1987-88 (38 appearances, two goals), was Verona’s centre forward and he played all of Italy’s matches (4). Laudrup, who had played for Lazio from 1983-1985 (70 appearances, 12 goals) also played four games scoring one goal against Uruguay. Gutiérrez, who arrived at Lazio in 1988 and stayed for one season (25 appearances, 1 goal) was also always present. All three teams were knocked out in the Round of 16.

Argentina became Champions beating West Germany 3-2 in the final.