Bruno Neri (; 12 October 1910 – 10 July 1944) 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, and was a World War II partisan.

Football career

Neri played club football for

Faenza Faenza (, ; ; or ; ) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed earthenware pottery, known ...

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

Lucchese Lucchese may refer to: * A.S. Lucchese Libertas 1905, a football team based in Lucca, Tuscany * Lucchese crime family, one of the "Five Families" of New York City's Mafia * Lucchese School, an art school in Tuscany, Italy that flourished in the 11 ...

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 ...

; he also earned three caps for the Italy national team.

Antifascist and partisan

Neri was an anti-fascist, and in 1931, at the inaugural match at a new stadium named in honour of Italian fascist

Giovanni Berta Giovanni Berta (August 24, 1894 – February 28, 1921) was an Italian fascist militant of the Florentine ''Squadrismo'', later killed by communist militants during the Pignone clashes in Florence. Biography Giovanni Francesco Berta, known as Gian ...

, Neri was the sole player to refuse to give a fascist salute before the game, instead keeping both arms straight down by his sides. In 1940, Neri began combining his playing career with anti-fascist activities; he was killed in an ambush by German troops at

Marradi Marradi () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italy, Italian region Tuscany, located about northeast of Florence at the borders with the Emilia-Romagna region. Marradi borders the following municipalities: ...

on 10 July 1944.

References

1910 births 1944 deaths Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Serie A players Serie B players ACF Fiorentina players Lucchese 1905 players Torino FC players Italian anti-fascists Italian resistance movement members Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Men's association football midfielders Italian civilians killed in World War II Place of birth missing 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1910s-stub