Angelo Schiavio

Angelo Schiavio (15 October 1905 – 17 April 1990) is a former Italian football player. He has played for Bologna and Italy national team. He is the top scorer of Bologna, his only club. He scored 252 goals in 364 games, being characterized by combining physical power and dribbling ability and the leader of a team at this club nicknamed the "team that makes the world tremble". Regarded as one of Italy's greatest strikers of all time. Schiavio holds the third best goal average (0.69 per game) among players who have participated in at least one hundred games in the Italian championship.

Angelo Schiavio

Schiavio with Bologna in 1925
Personal information
Full name	Angelo Schiavio
Date of birth	(1905-10-15)15 October 1905
Place of birth	Bologna, Italy
Date of death	17 September 1990(1990-09-17) (aged 84)
Place of death	Bologna, Italy
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1922–1939	Bologna	348	(242)
Total		348	(242)
National team
1925–1934	Italy	21	(15)
Teams managed
1933–1934	Bologna
1946	Bologna
1953–1958	Italy
Honours Men's Football Representing Italy FIFA World Cup Winner 1934 Italy Central European International Cup Winner 1927–30 Europe Winner 1933–35 Europe Summer Olympics 1928 Amsterdam
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Throughout his career, Schiavio played only for Bologna, from 1922 to 1938. From the beginning, he showed a good goal average: in his first season, 1922-23, he scored six times, but also played only six games. In the 1923-24 season, there were 15 goals in 24 games. In the later one, in 1924-25 there were 16 out of 27. This season, the Rossblù were champions of the Italian championship for the first time. Months later, in November 1925, Schiavio made his debut for the Italian national team.

In the subsequent season, 1925–26, Schiavio managed more than one goal per game, scoring 28 times in 20 matches. He maintained a high average in the following seasons: 17 goals in 25 games in 1926-27, 30 in 26 in 1927-28 and 26 and 30 in 1928-29, season in which he and the club won their second league title. Also in 1929, the striker and the club participated in a tour of South America; In the 1929–30 Italian season, Schiavio finished playing only fifteen times, with seven goals.

Between the 1930-31 and 1934-35 seasons, Juventus won an unprecedented fifth championship, naturally forming the basis of selection. Schiavio, on the other hand, remained an undisputed national idol. He and Bologna, in turn, won in 1932 and 1934 the Mitropa Cup, a tournament considered a precursor to the UEFA Champions League. In Serie A, the striker, amid Juventus' dominance, continued to perform in great individual performance; There were 16 goals in 21 games in the 1930-31 season, 25 in 30 in the 1931-32 season (finishing, for the only time, as top scorer in the championship), 28 in 33 in 1932–33 and 9 in 1933–34, at the end of which he was called up to the 1934 FIFA World Cup, held in his country and in which he scored the goal of the Azzurri's title.

After the World Cup, Schiavio no longer maintained such a high average. There were 12 goals in 27 matches in the 1934-35 season and 10 in 26 in the 1935-36 season, in which Bologna was champion again, ending Juventus' streak. At that point, colleague Carlo Reguzzoni was already showing himself as the new technical leader of the squad. Schiavio played two more seasons, but little: there were only two matches (with two goals) in the 1936-37 match, in which the felsinei won another Italian title in a row; and six, without scoring, in the 1937-38 period. He would have decided to stop playing after losing against Lazio a goal seen as easy to convert.

After Schiavio stopped playing, in 1938, Bologna won only three more titles in the Italian championship. In 1938, the club was the third highest champion, behind Genoa (nine) and Juventus (seven), having the same amount of trophies as Internazionale (four) and more than Milan (three) and Torino (one). Currently, despite experiencing a long decline, Bologna remains the fifth biggest winner of Serie A, below Genoa, Juventus and the Milan duo, having the same seven titles as Torino and being ahead of Roma (three), Lazio, Napoli and Fiorentina (two each).

International career

Schiavio made his debut for Italy on 4 November 1925, in a 2–1 win in which he scored both Italian goals against Yugoslavia in Padua. He had just participated in Bologna's first Italian title, in the 1924-25 season. Until 1929, he continued to be called up every year by the Azzurri, including participation in football at the 1928 Summer Olympics. In those Olympics, he scored one goal in a 7–1 win over Spain and three in the 11–3 win over Egypt. The Italians finished with the bronze medal, after losing 3-2 in the semifinal to champion Uruguay.

Schiavio did not play for Italy between 1929 and 1932, The year in which he was top scorer in the Italian Championship. Called up to the 1934 FIFA World Cup, he scored three times in his debut, against the United States, who in the previous edition had finished in third place. One of the goals opened the scoring and was the first for the team in the history of the FIFA World Cups. Another of them, the third (and fifth of the Azzurri) was the hundredth scored in the history of the competition.

In the next match, Schiavio was the center of a controversy: Spain led 1–0 and the Italians equalized thanks to a foul by the striker on opposing goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora, who had hit a ball and was prevented by Schiavio from getting up to prevent Giovanni Ferrari's completion. Another version points out that the goalkeeper would have been elbowed in the play. Despite Spanish protests, the referee ignored the foul and the score remained 1–1 at the end of extra time, which by the regulations of the time forced an extra game the following day. In it, Zamora and Schiavio did not play. Italy won 1-0.

Italy subsequently beat a sensation of the tournament, the Wunderteam of Austria, in the semifinals, without Schiavio scoring. In the final, Czechoslovakia even opened the scoring in the 31st minute of the second half, then hit a ball on the post. The scare did not prevent the Italians from equalizing five minutes later, forcing an extra time that did not fail to worry the host fans: it was the fourth match in ten days for the Azzurri and 300 minutes played in contrast to the 180 of the opponent, who had played only twice. Schiavio, however, reassured the crowd by scoring in the five minutes of extra time.

In the play, Giuseppe Meazza threw the ball into the Czechoslovakian area. On the right midfield, Schiavio and Enrique Guaita shared with two opponents. The ball fell to Guaita and touched his colleague, who escaped alone. On the edge of the penalty area, he shot just as Josef Čtyřoký appeared to try to intercept. The ball deflected and, in effect, covered goalkeeper František Plánička, who had kneeled to wait for a shot that looked like it would be low. After the goal, the Italians successfully locked themselves in to secure the title. [11] That was Schiavio's last match for the national team. In all, there were 15 goals in 21 matches for Italy.

After football and death

The son of farmers, Schiavio began to dedicate himself to the family business, in addition to becoming the director of Bologna itself. In the 1950s, he was also a member of the coaching staff of the Italian national team, not repeating his success as a player, with the Azzurri failing to qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup.

He died in 1990, a few months before the start of the World Cup, which would be held again in his country.

Club career statistics

Club statistics			League
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals
Italy			League
1922/23	Bologna	Championship	6	6
1923/24			24	15
1924/25			27	16
1925/26			23	27
1926/27			25	15
1927/28			29	25
1928/29			29	31
1929/30		Serie A	15	7
1930/31			21	16
1931/32			30	25
1932/33			33	28
1933/34			19	9
1934/35			27	12
1935/36			26	10
1936/37			2	2
1937/38			6	0
Country	Italy		184	106
Total			184	106

International career statistics

Italy national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1925	1	2
1926	2	1
1927	1	0
1928	5	4
1929	3	0
1930	0	0
1931	0	0
1932	1	0
1933	4	4
1934	4	4
Total	21	15

Honours

Club

Bologna

• Serie A: 1924–25, 1928–29, 1935–36, 1936–37
• Mitropa Cup: 1932, 1934
• International Trophy of the Universal Expo of Paris: 1937

International

Italy

• FIFA World Cup: 1934
• Central European International Cup: 1927–30, 1933–35
• Summer Olympics Bronze Medal: 1928

Individual

• Serie A Capocannoniere: 1931–32 (25 goals)
• FIFA World Cup Silver Boot: 1934
• Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2012 (posthumous)