Golden Oldie

By: salvatore | April 23rd, 2008

There’s been some transfer/contract talk the last few days that’s been making me ill, so instead of going over how Bianchi and Behrami are suddenly too expensive for Lotito (vattene), I thought I’d just post about a true Lazio and Italy great: Silvio Piola.

Piola cartoon

Born in Pavia, the inventor of the bicycle kick was a real workhouse, playing 537 games in Serie A (4th all time) despite something of a world war breaking out right in the middle of his career. More impressively, Piola scored 274 goals in his 25 years, which doesn’t give him the greatest strike rate, but puts him solidly at number one on Serie A’s all-time goalscoring list:

Player Goals/Appearances
1. Silvio Piola 274/539
2. Gunnar Nordhal 225/291
3. Giuseppe Meazza 216/367
4. Jose Altafini 216/459
5. Roberto Baggio 205/452
6. Kurt Hamrin 191/400
7. Giuseppe Signori 188/344
8. Gabriel Batistuta 183/306

Senso

Unless Baggio comes back and defies every logical notion of human aging, that’s a record that should stand for awhile. Just as secure is Piola’s 143 talies wearing the Biancoceleste shirt. Yep, Silvio is Lazio’s all-time greatest goal scorer too, and he’ll continue to be unless Rocchi suddenly scores 20 goals in each of his next five years (C’mon Balboa!).

Piola’s nine seasons with Lazio also coincided with his Azzurri period, which most notably includes the 1938 World Cup win, where he scored five times.

rovesciata

That triumph must have been exceptionally sweet for Piola, as he somehow failed to win a scudetto in his career, which is just mind boggling. In any case, all that goal scoring put him in esteemed company, and numerous media outlets (like World Soccer, Guerin’ Sportivo, and Placar) named him among the 20th century’s best players.

Here’s a clip on Piola (sorry only in Italian):