Felice Placido Borel (; 5 April 1914 – 21 January 1993) was an Italian football player who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He was a member of the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

that won the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in ...

Club career

Borel was born in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, France. During his career, he played for Juventus and cross-city rivals

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) 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 ...

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

and, in

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

, for Alessandria, and finally for S.S.C. Napoli, where he finished his career. He scored 157 goals for Juventus, winning three

titles ( 1933,

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a max ...

, and

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart bec ...

) and a

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity ...

(1938) during his time with the club, as well as the Serie A top-scorer award on two occasions (1933 and 1934); he is currently Juventus's sixth highest goal scorer. During his second spell with the club in the 1940s, he held the position of

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

. He still holds the record for most goals, in winning the Capocannoniere/Top scorer title, in

while playing for Juventus with 31 goals. Allthough Ferenc Hirzer still holds the record for most goals in winning the Capocannoniere/Top scorer title, in the Best Italian League while playing for Juventus with 35 goals (in only 24 matches) but then it was called

Prima Divisione Prima Divisione (''First Division'') was the name of the first level of the Italian Football Championship from 1921 to 1926. The competition was initially founded in opposition to the FIGC by the richest clubs of Northern Italy, which disagreed th ...

International career

Borel made three appearances for the Italy national team between 1933 and 1934, scoring his only international goal on his debut against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

on 22 November, in Budapest, during the gold winning 1933-35 Central European International Cup campaign. He was part of the

winning national team, appearing once throughout the tournament, during the quarter-final victory over

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

on 1 June.

Style of play

Nicknamed ''farfallino'' ("little butterfly," in Italian), Borel usually played as a

centre-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, and is regarded as one of Italy's and Juventus's greatest forwards of all time. He was known for his speed, movement, shooting, goalscoring,

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

, team-play, and technical ability. In his later career he usually played as an

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

or '' mezzala'', or even as an offensive–minded

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Despite his ability, however, he was also injury prone.

After retirement

During the 1958–59 season, he was technical director of Catania.

Personal life

Felice's older brother Aldo Borel played football professionally, spending 10 seasons in the

, and their father Ernesto Borel played for

OGC Nice Olympique Gymnaste Club Nice Côte d'Azur (), commonly referred to as OGC Nice or simply Nice, is a French professional football club based in Nice. The club was founded in 1904 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football. ...

AS Cannes Association Sportive de Cannes Football (; commonly referred to as AS Cannes or simply Cannes) is a French association football club based in Cannes. The club was formed 1902 as a sports club and currently plays in the Championnat National 3, ...

and Juventus in the 1900s and 1910s, and later also served as a manager. To distinguish the brothers, Aldo was known as Borel I and Felice - as Borel II.

Honours

Juventus *

: 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35 *

: 1937–38

International

;

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...

Central European International Cup The European International Cup of Nations was an international football competition held by certain national teams from Central Europe & South Europe between 1927 and 1960.Leo Schidrowitz "Internationaler Cup", Vienna 1954 There were competitions f ...

: 1933-35

Individual

* Serie A Top-scorer: 1932–33 (29 goals), 1933–34 (31 goals)

References

External links

La Gazzetta dello Sport
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borel, Felice 1914 births 1993 deaths Footballers from Nice 1934 FIFA World Cup players Italian footballers Italy international footballers French footballers French people of Italian descent Association football forwards Serie A players Serie B players Juventus F.C. players Torino F.C. players U.S. Alessandria Calcio 1912 players S.S.C. Napoli players FIFA World Cup-winning players French emigrants to Italy