Emilio Caprile (; 30 September 1928 – 5 March 2020) 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

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. A versatile player, he was capable of playing both as a striker and as a left winger.

Club career

Born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Emilio Caprile's

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 ...

debut came at 17 years of age with

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

then Sestrese in

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

as well as

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan, province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Legnano is located in the ...

before going to

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 ...

. With Juventus he won the

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

having only played five games and scoring 2 goals. Tired of riding the bench he went to

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

for two seasons and then to

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, returning finally to Legnano in Serie C. He retired after 13 seasons.

International career

Caprile made his senior international debut for Pozzo's Italy national team in the round of 16 of the 1948 London Olympics on 2 August 1948, also scoring a goal in a 9–0 win over the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, in Brentford, at the age of 19 years, 10 months, and 2 days, making him one of Italy's youngest ever debutants. He also made another appearance in the tournament, playing in the quarterfinals, scoring a goal in Italy's 5–3 loss to

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. These were the only two appearances that Caprile made for Italy between 1948 and 1950. In total, he scored two goals for Italy. He was the youngest player on Italy's 1950 World Cup team, but one of four players who did not see any action throughout the tournament.

International goals

References

1928 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Genoa Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Genoa CFC players AC Legnano players Juventus FC players Atalanta BC players SS Lazio players Como 1907 players Serie A players Olympic footballers for Italy Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Italy men's international footballers 1950 FIFA World Cup players FS Sestrese Calcio 1919 players Italy men's B international footballers 20th-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-forward-1920s-stub