Pio Maneschi was born in Secondigliano (Naples), on January 25, 1898.
At 18 he joined Lazio. He started playing regularly from 1918 after the war period. He stayed at Lazio until 1925. In his first six years he was always coached by Guido Baccani (he was at Lazio 17 years). Lazio went close to winning the title in 1923, reaching the Finale Nazionale but losing to Genoa.
In Maneschi's final year at Lazio in 1924-25, the manager finally changed and in came Hungarian Dezső Kőszegi. The Biancocelesti went close to reaching another final but lost a Lega Sud semifinal play-off to Anconitana 1-0 (the Marchigiani then lost to Alba Roma, who were then defeated by champions Bologna, 6-0 on aggregate).
In these years Maneschi played 59 games (there were far fewer games then) and scored an impressive 20 goals.
In 1925 he stayed in Rome but joined Alba Roma (which in 1926 became Alba Audace). His move was helped by promises of wages by the then president Albino Farneti. In his first year the Biancoverdi reached the national final. In the Lega Sud final Maneschi scored two goals against Internaples. In the Scudetto matches Juventus proved too strong and won 12-1 on aggregate. In his second year the fascist regime imposed the first proper national league. Two groups of ten teams competed and the top three in each went on to a mini league to award the title. Alba came 9th and were relegated. The Scudetto was won by Torino but was then taken away for match fixing… obviously not a modern invention.
In his two seasons with Alba Audace, Maneschi played 18 games and scored 6 goals.
In 1927 Alba merged with other local teams and formed A.S Roma. Maneschi returned to Lazio, who had refused to join the new club and remained proudly independent. He stayed two more seasons but only played 6 games. His first manager was Austrian Franz Sedlacek but the following season he was sacked early on and replaced by Fernando Saraceni, then Augusto Rangone and finally Hungarian Ferenc Molnar. All these changes did not prevent Lazio from qualifying for the following year's first single table edition of Serie A.
In 1929 Maneschi joined Viterbo in the second division South. A year later he played a final season with Ilva Bagnolese, in his hometown of Naples.
Maneschi was an attacking midfielder and was known for his physical strength. In Rome he was nicknamed "Er Braciola" (Pork Chop). He was versatile and was sometimes used in central defence. He was tactically intelligent and at Lazio especially had a good goal scoring rate. He never won a Scudetto but reached two finals, Lazio 1923 and Alba Audace 1926.
He died in Rome on May 17, 1970
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | National Championship | National Division | Other |
1916-17 | 4 | - | 4 | |
1920-21 | 9 (1) | 9(1) | - | |
1921-22 | 12 (1) | 12 (1) | - | |
1922-23 | 19 (14) | 19 (14) | - | |
1923-24 | 9 (2) | 9 (4) | - | |
1927-28 | 6 | - | 6 | |
Total | 59 (20) | 49 (20) | 6 | 4 |
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