Carlo Mattrel (; 14 April 1937 – 25 September 1976) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. During his career, he was regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in Italy, and had a highly successful career at club level playing for

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

in particular, while also representing other Italian clubs. At international level, he represented the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

at the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the 7th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place between ...

Club career

Mattrel played with

for most of his career, between 1955 and 1965, aside from two brief loan spells with

Anconitana Associazione Calcio Ancona, commonly referred to as Ancona, was an Italian football club based in Ancona, Marche. It was founded in 2004 as the phoenix club of defunct 1905 club Unione Sportiva Anconitana, which changed its name to Ancona Calc ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. With the Turin club, he won three

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 ...

titles during the 1957–58, 1959–60, and 1960–61 seasons, as well as three

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

tournaments in 1959, 1960, and 1965. After his time with Juventus, he spent two seasons with

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

, and one final season with

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly referred to by the acronym SPAL (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. During the 2024–25 season the team played in Serie C, the third tier of the Italian foot ...

before retiring in 1968. Throughout his career, he made 158 appearances in

, 27 in the

, 4 in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

, and 1 in the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

International career

He made his first appearance for

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

on 13 May 1962 in a 3–1 away win over

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Mattrel was also part of the Italy squad in the

, initially as a back-up for Lorenzo Buffon, but he went on to make an appearance for Italy in the infamous second group match against hosts

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

on 2 June, known also as the " Battle of Santiago", as Italy were defeated, and eliminated in the first round of the tournament.

Style of play

Regarded as one of the best Italian goalkeepers of his generation, Mattrel was as a serious, hard-working, and disciplined player, who was capable of organising his defence well. Despite not being a particularly strong, acrobatic, or athletic keeper, or a good puncher of the ball, which saw him struggle on crosses, he was known however for his shot-stopping ability, excellent positional sense, speed when rushing off his line, and his ability to read the game, as well as his agility, in spite of his tall, slender frame.

After retirement

After his playing career, Mattrel became a building contractor. He died in 1976, aged 39, in a road accident.

Honours

;

: 1957–58, 1959–60, 1960–61 *

: 1958–59, 1959–60, 1964–65

References

External links

Biography - forza-juventus.comBiography - pianetarosanero.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattrel, Carlo 1937 births 1976 deaths Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers 1962 FIFA World Cup players Juventus FC players AC Ancona players Palermo FC players Cagliari Calcio players SPAL players Serie A players Men's association football goalkeepers Road incident deaths in Italy Footballers from Turin 20th-century Italian sportsmen