Gigi Meroni

Gigi Meroni

Personal information
Full name	Luigi Meroni
Date of birth	(1943-02-24)24 February 1943
Place of birth	Como, Italy
Date of death	15 October 1967(1967-10-15) (aged 24)
Place of death	Torino, Italy
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position	Winger
Youth career
19??–1960	Libertas SanBartolomeo
1960–1961	Como
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1960–1962	Como	25	(3)
1962–1964	Genoa	42	(7)
1964–1967	Torino	103	(22)
Total		170	(32)
National team
1964	Italia B	2	(1)
1966–1967	Italy	6	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Luigi "Gigi" Meroni (24 February 1943 – 15 October 1967) was an Italian footballer who played as a winger.

He died at the age of 24, shortly after the end of a match between Torino, the team to which he belonged, and Sampdoria, hit by a car while crossing Corso Re Umberto in Turin with his friend and teammate Fabrizio Poletti. He played 145 matches in Serie A, scoring 29 goals.

Club career

He began to play football in a small courtyard of 60 square meters, before playing on the Oratorio di San Bartolomeo at Como. At the age of two he lost his father, while his mother Rose, a professional weaver, had economic difficulties raising three children: Celestino, Luigi (Nicknamed, then, Gigi) and Mary. His first job was as a silk necktie designer, he also devoted himself to painting.

His football career began with the Como youth sector, where he also made his debut for the first team, albeit in the second division. Meroni was then sold to Genoa. In the shadow of the Lanterna, Meroni had moments of great notoriety. The magic threatened to crack on the last match of the season, when he refused to undergo the examinations when called to a doping control, saying that he had forgotten the test in the hotel. Three other players tested positive for amphetamines and Meroni was suspended for the first five days of the championship in 1963.

In 1964, despite the discontent of the Genoa fans, Meroni was sold to Torino, coached by Nereo Rocco, a team on the rise after the tragic decline following the tragedy of Superga, for 300 million lire, at the time a record for a player of only 21 years of age.

He was nicknamed the "butterfly", with reference to his style of play and anticonformist outfits (he was notorious for his cohabitation as husband and wife with a young divorcee, Cristiana Uderstadt) and the "beatnik del gol" (the beatnik of football) for his artistic interests and hippie style.

Along with striker Nestor Combin, he formed a successful attacking partnership, preceding the glorious attacking partnership of Paolo Pulici and Francesco Graziani at Torino years later.

Rumors of his move to Juventus, for an offer of 750 million lire, triggered a sort of "crisis" and then popular Torino president Orfeo Pianelli, under the pressure of the fans, had to decline.

In 1967 at San Siro, after one of his famous dribbles, he lobbed the ball from the edge of box into the top corner of the goal, interrupting the unbeaten home run of the "Grande Inter" of Helenio Herrera, forcing Inter Milan to be defeated after three years of positive results.

International career

His first call-up to the national team was a qualifier against Poland in 1965 . He scored the first goal for the azzurri in Bologna, 14 June 1966, marking the sixth goal of the Italy-Bulgaria 6-1 friendly match in preparation for the World Cup. He scored a goal in the other friendly, Italia-Argentina 3-0, held in Turin eight days later.

He participated in the ill-fated expedition led by coach Edmondo Fabbri at the World Cup in England in 1966, which culminated with the incredible defeat to North Korea 1-0 and elimination in the first round. The continuing differences with the coach meant Meroni only played the second game against the USSR.

Style of play

Meroni was a right winger that played with the number 7. His strong point was his unpredictable dribbling with which he unlocked the opposing defence, often coming face to face with goalkeeper.

Career statistics

External links

• Fan site
• Comic