Miguel Ángel Andreolo Frodella (6 September 1912 – 14 May 1981), known as Michele Andreolo (), was a
Uruguayan
Uruguayans () are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizen ...
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
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 ...
. He was born in
Dolores, Uruguay but his family was from
Valle dell'Angelo in the
province of Salerno
The province of Salerno () is a province in the Campania region of Italy. It has 1,054,766 inhabitants as of 2025.
Geography
The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 131,950; Cava de' Tirreni, Bat ...
.
He was a member of the Italy team that won the
1938 FIFA World Cup
The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the 3rd edition of the FIFA World Cup, World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in France from 4 to 19 June 1938. Italy national ...
.
Club career
Andreolo played for
Nacional
Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to:
Airlines
* Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002
* Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961
Bank
* Banco Nacional, a ...
in Uruguay before joining
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 ...
team
Bologna F.C. 1909 ahead of the
1935–36 season and helping them win the league title (''
Scudetto
The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...
'') that year. He would remain in Bologna until 1943, winning the Scudetto three more times, in
1936–37,
1938–39 and
1940–41.
Later in his career he played for Italian sides
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 ...
,
Napoli
Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...
,
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 ...
and
Forlì
Forlì ( ; ; ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is, together with Cesena, the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena.The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the east of the Montone river, ...
.
International career
Following his success with Bologna, Andreolo was also called up to the
Italy national team by
Vittorio Pozzo
Vittorio Pozzo (; 2 March 1886 – 21 December 1968) was an Italian association football, football player, manager (association football), manager and journalist.
The creator of the ''Formation (association football)#Metodo (2–3–2–3), Me ...
and debuted on 17 May 1936 against
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. He soon became a regular in the team, playing his crucial role of connection between defence and attack. He helped win the
1938 FIFA World Cup
The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the 3rd edition of the FIFA World Cup, World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in France from 4 to 19 June 1938. Italy national ...
in France, and played his last match for the national team on 19 April 1942, having earned 26 caps and 1 goal. With Uruguay, he won the
1935 South American Championship
The 1935 South American Championship was the thirteenth edition of the football tournament, held from 6–27 January 1935 in Lima, Peru, used for Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay to qualify for the 1936 Summer Olympics. Brazil, Bolivia and Pa ...
.
Death
Andreolo died in
Potenza
Potenza (, ; ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania).
Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one of ...
, southern
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 ...
.
Honours
Club
;Bologna
*
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 ...
:
1935–36,
1936–37,
1938–39,
1940–41
International
;Uruguay
*
Copa América
The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...
:
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 ...
;Italy
[
*]FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...
: 1938
Events
January
* January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS).
* January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...
Individual
* FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1938
Events
January
* January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS).
* January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...
References
1912 births
1981 deaths
Footballers from Montevideo
Club Nacional de Football players
Bologna FC 1909 players
SS Lazio players
SSC Napoli players
Catania FC players
1938 FIFA World Cup players
FIFA World Cup–winning players
Italian men's footballers
Italy men's international footballers
Serie A players
Uruguayan men's footballers
Uruguayan emigrants to Italy
People of Campanian descent
Men's association football midfielders
20th-century Italian sportsmen
20th-century Uruguayan sportsmen
{{Italy-footy-midfielder-1910s-stub