Rino Ferrario (; 7 December 1926 – 19 September 2012) 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

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 ...

Club career

As a defensive midfielder, Ferrario became a starter at

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 ...

, winning the position from

Carlo Parola Carlo Parola (; 20 September 1921 – 22 March 2000), was an Italian football player and coach who played as a defender. Throughout his career, he won domestic titles with Italian club Juventus, both as a player and as a manager. At internation ...

. At Juventus, he won two

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 ...

championships, the first in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

and the other in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

as well as one

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 ...

before ending his career with cross-city rivals

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 ...

at thirty-five years of age.

International career

Ferrario was one of five players selected to represent the Italy national team at the 1954 World Cup that did not play during the cup (among others; Sergio Cervato, Leonardo Costagliola, Guido Gratton and, Gino Pivatelli). A notable instance with the national team at

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

was Ferrario's confrontation with

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

's local hero Kocsis in a 1955 game where Italy lost 2–0 that nearly started a riot between the Italians and Magyars. For the 'Azzurri' he earned 10 caps between 1952 and 1958 and was praised for his consistent performances. He was also a member of the Italian team that took part at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

, however he did not participate in any matches.

Style of play

One of the largest players to ever have played on the Italy national team at the time, he was nicknamed 'Mobilia' for his rugby player-like physique. He was also called "The Belfast Lion" for fiercely defending himself in Belfast during a pitch invasion by angry opposing fans.

References

External links

La Gazzetta dello Sport
* https://kripkit.com/rino-ferrario/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrario, Rino 1926 births 2012 deaths Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders SS Arezzo players Lucchese 1905 players Juventus FC players Inter Milan players US Triestina Calcio 1918 players Torino FC players Serie A players Italy men's international footballers 1954 FIFA World Cup players Footballers from the Province of Monza e Brianza 20th-century Italian sportsmen