Mauro Della Martira was born in Rome on December 16, 1951.
He started playing football in a local Rome team, Bettini Quadraro, and in 1969-70 left for Arezzo where he never played professionally. After a couple of seasons in minor teams, in 1972 he signed for Viareggio in Serie C. He did very well and the next year he left for Florence. He played for five years with Fiorentina, making 88 league appearances with five goals and winning a Coppa Italia in 1974-75, beating Milan 3-2 in the Rome final, and an Anglo-Italian League Cup in 1975 against West Ham United.
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In 1978 he moved to Perugia and was part of the team that reached a historic second place under Ilario Castagner without losing a match and with the best defence of Serie A. The following season, despite having Paolo Rossi in the squad, Perugia arrived seventh. But at the end of the year there was the big Totonero match fixing scandal. Della Martira was involved for the alleged fixing of the game Avellino-Perugia which ended 2-2. He got a five-year ban, later reduced to three after the two-year grace following the Italy world cup win in 1982.
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Della Martira stopped playing football and had a brief experience as assistant coach with New York Cosmos. When Giorgio Chinaglia became president of Lazio, he wanted Della Martira to come with him. After being in charge of marketing, Chinaglia gave him the possibility to be part of the squad and Della Martira made six unmemorable appearances with the exception of the derby. Lazio were surprisingly 2-0 up after 25 minutes but Della Martira was then responsible for the foul on Roberto Pruzzo which gave Roma the penalty that allowed them to reduce the deficit.
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Once he definitely stopped playing, Della Martira tried something very different. He moved to London and opened a restaurant. His daughter even participated in the third edition of MasterChef Italia.
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Not much of an impact at Lazio, but he certainly left good memories in Florence and Perugia.
Lazio Career
Season | Serie A appearances |
1983-84 | 6 |
Sources