Aldo Ballarin (; 10 January 1922 – 4 May 1949) was an Italian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender.

Club career

Ballarin played for five seasons (166 games, three goals) in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

for

U.S. Triestina Calcio Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to US Triestina or just Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, in the northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Originally established in 1918, Triestina was one of the ...

and

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. With Torino, he won four Serie A titles.

International career

He made his debut for the Italy national team on 11 November 1945 in a game against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Personal life

Aldo's younger brothers

Dino Ballarin Dino Ballarin (23 September 1925 – 4 May 1949) was an Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Ballarin arrived at Torino in 1947, the team in which his brother, Aldo Ballarin, played as a defender. Dino arrived from the ama ...

and Sergio Ballarin also played football professionally. To distinguish them, Aldo was referred to as Ballarin I, Dino as Ballarin II and Sergio as Ballarin III.

Death

Ballarin died with his brother Dino and most of the ''

Grande Torino The was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superga air di ...

'' team in the

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster (, "Tragedy of Superga") occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino F.C., Torino association football, football team (popularly known as the ''Grande ...

. The stadium in his hometown, in which A.C. Chioggia Sottomarina plays, was renamed in their honour.

Honours

Torino *

: 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49.

External links

* 1922 births 1949 deaths Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Serie A players Serie C players Rovigo Calcio players US Triestina Calcio 1918 players Venezia FC players Torino FC players Men's association football defenders Footballers killed in the Superga air disaster Sportspeople from Chioggia Footballers from the Metropolitan City of Venice 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-defender-1920s-stub