Giorgio Chinaglia(1947-2012)

Giorgio Chinaglia was Born in Carrara, Tuscany, Italy. He grew up in Wales and began his career with the local Football club "Swansea City". He moved back to Italy and started playing for Massese and Internapoli (semiprofessional teams), and finally in "Serie A" for Lazio, the most important of the 2 professional football teams in Rome . He became famous wearing the number 9 shirt with Lazio where he played for seven seasons starting in 1969. In 1974 Chinaglia scored a goal in the Rome derby, and pointed to the Curva Sud, Roma fans, and taunted them. Chinaglia led Lazio to the club's first championship title in its history and was the league's lead scorer. Chinaglia had 14 caps and scored four goals for the Italian National Team (Azzurri), and played in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany. In 1976, Chinaglia moved to the NASL and the New York Cosmos. While many foreign stars would play in the NASL (Pelé being the greatest example), Chinaglia was probably the first great player to leave his original team for the NASL while still in the prime of his career. This is evident with the great success he had in the NASL, scoring 192 goals in 213 games. He led the NASL in scoring four times and would be the league's all-time leading scorer. Chinaglia would win the NASL Most Valuable Player Award in 1981. He went back to Rome, Italy in 1983 to become the Owner/President of Lazio for 2 years. Giorgio left great and unforgettable memories with his fans as a player even with the less successful parenthesis as a President.