Angelo Massimino (

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

, 1927 —

Scillato Scillato ( Sicilian: ''Sciḍḍatu'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 671 and an area of .All dem ...

, 4 March 1996) was an Italian entrepreneur and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

owner, who served as chairman of

Calcio Catania Catania Football Club, commonly known as Catania, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in Serie C. Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the clu ...

for almost 25 years. A Sicilian emigrant who made his fortune in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, returned in Catania during the 1950s and, together with his brothers, founded in 1962 an amateur football club called ''Massiminiana'', leading them up to

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

, where they played for four consecutive seasons. In 1968, he became the owner of Calcio Catania, and immediately invested in his new club, obtaining a promotion to

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 ...

only one year later. He then resigned in 1972, following immediate relegation to Serie B followed by two poor seasons in the second-highest national division, but returned to serve as chairman two years later, immediately obtaining a second promotion. During the following years, Catania proved to be a yo-yo team, playing in all of the three highest national division, making a one-year comeback to Serie A in 1983. He left the club in 1987 following relegation to

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

and criticisms by the local supporters. He however returned once again in 1992 to save the club from bankruptcy, but was unable to avoid a controversial cancellation of his club one year later. The club cancellation was later declared invalid by the Italian magistrature, and Catania was readmitted to Italian football, namely into the

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

regional league, and immediately started to rise the football league pyramid with two consecutive promotions, despite Massimino's partial blindness and worsening health caused by

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

. Angelo Massimino died in 1996, aged 69, in a road accident on the Palermo-Catania highway. His funeral in Catania was attended by over a thousand people. Massimino is still remembered by Catania supporters as their most representative chairman, and the local stadium, formerly known as ''Cibali'', was named after him in 2002. He was also nationally known for his poor

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

skills, heavily influenced by his Sicilian heritage, and several blunders who made him popular among Italian football fans.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massimino, Angelo Catania FC 1927 births 1996 deaths Italian football chairmen and investors People from Catania Road incident deaths in Italy Italian expatriates in Argentina Businesspeople from Sicily 20th-century Italian businesspeople