Valentino Mazzola

Valentino Mazzola (January 26, 1919 - May 4, 1949) was an Italian footballer and captain of the Torino side killed in the Superga air disaster.

Early life

Mazzola was born at Cassano d'Adda, in the province of Milan.

Ironically for a man later to die in an accident himself, at the age of ten, Mazzola saved the life of Andrea Bonomi, later a defender for A.C. Milan, by rescuing him from a river.

Mazzola first broke into football by playing for the team at the Alfa Romeo Milano factory where he worked, just before the war. In 1939, Mazzola was called up to join the Italian Navy at Venezia. While there, he was encouraged to attend the trials at Venezia A.C. and did so.

It was during this time at Venezia that Mazzola fist met Ezio Loik, when the latter moved to the club from Milan. This started a nine-year partnership.

Career

Mazzola's career with Venezia started modestly, with a tenth-placed finish in 1940 and a twelfth-place finish the next season. In 1941, however, the team won the Coppa Italia Final against Roma and finished third in the league in 1942.

Mazzola then made his debut for the national side on April 5, 1942, when he scored a goal.

As they finished third in the league, Venezia were only a single point behind Torino, who promptly began to take notice of Mazzola. The only problem was that Juventus had a verbal agreement with Venezia that they would sign Mazzola. However, Torino eventually offered two hundred thousand lira plus two players and won the player's signature.

Although the deal was intended to be kept secret, news of the upcoming move got out and as Venezia played Torino, the crowd began to taunt Mazzola, calling him a "sell-out". Mazzola promptly led Venezia to a 3-1 win.

With Torino, Mazzola won the wartime league title in 1943. In 1944, the championship ended early, but Mazzola managed to score 10 goals (in context, however, Silvio Piola scored 31).

In 1946, Mazzola helped the team to the title, which they won over Inter Milan by 13 points. The next season, Torino won the title again, beating second-placed Juventus by 10 points. In 1948, Torino broke numerous records, including ending the season with the biggest ever advantage over the second-placed team (they beat Milan to the title by 16 points) and on May 11, 1947, Torino provided 10 of the 11 players who took to the field against Hungary. Mazzola played 12 matches with the Italian National Team and scored 4 goals.

In the 1948-49 season, Torino won the last title they would get until 1976. Mazzola scored 109 goals in the Italian Championship with Venezia and Torino in totally 8 years.

Family

Mazzola's first child, Sandro Mazzola, was born on November 8, 1942, just after Valentino had arrived at Torino. On February 1, 1945, his second son was born and was named 'Ferruccio' after Ferruccio Novo, the president of Torino.

Around 1946, however, his marriage broke up. Valentino remarried and got custody of one son, Sandro.

The football lessons given to Alessandro by his father would pay off later, when the young boy would play for Inter Milan and Italy. He won 4 Championship, 2 Champions Cups, 2 World Cups for clubs and the 1968 European Cup with Italia.

Superga disaster

Despite suffering from illness, Mazzola was determined to attend the match he had organised for Torino in Lisbon in 1949. On May 4, on the return journey from the game, the aircraft carrying Mazzola and the rest of the team crashed, killing everyone on board and leaving only one first-team player at Torino alive.

Quotes

By Mazzola

“You can always win in soccer, as long as you change.”
“Soccer will always be a game of eleven."

On Mazzola

“He alone is half the squad. The other half is made by the rest of us together.” (team-mate Mario Rigamonti).

Trivia

José Altafini, a great player with Brazil and AC Milan for many years, was called "Mazzola" as a reference to Valentino.