Gianpiero Combi

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Gianpiero Combi
1934 FIFA World Cup Final
Personal information
Date of birth 20 November 1902
Place of birth Turin, Italy
Date of death 12 August 1956(1956-08-12) (aged 53)
Place of death Imperia, Italy
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1921–1934 Juventus[1] 367 (0)
International career
1924–1934 Italy 47 (0)
Medal record
 Italy
Summer Olympics
Bronze medal – third place 1928 Amsterdam
Central European International Cup
Gold medal – first place 1927–30 Central European International Cup
Central European International Cup
Silver medal – second place 1931–32 Central European International Cup
FIFA World Cup
Gold medal – first place 1934 Italy
Central European International Cup
Gold medal – first place 1933–35 Central European International Cup
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gianpiero Combi (Italian pronunciation: [dʒamˈpjɛːro ˈkombi]; 20 November 1902 – 12 August 1956) was an Italian footballer who played as a goalkeeper.[2] He spent his entire club career at Juventus, where he won five Italian League titles. At international level, he won the 1934 World Cup with the Italy national team, as well as two Central European International Cups (in 1930 and 1935), and an Olympic bronze medal in 1928.[3]

Combi was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world during the 1930s, alongside

IFFHS poll, he was elected Italy's second best goalkeeper of the twentieth century, behind only Dino Zoff, and the sixteenth greatest European goalkeeper of the century, alongside Rinat Dasayev.[7]

Club career

Combi was born in

golden age of the club with a record of five championship victories in a row, a feat known as Il Quinquennio d'Oro (The Golden Quinquennium[9]
).

Virginio Rosetta, Combi and Umberto Caligaris with Juventus in the early 1930s

Along with Virginio Rosetta and Umberto Caligaris, Combi formed a formidable defensive wall (known in Italy as the Trio Combi-Rosetta-Caligaris[10]) for both Juventus and the Italy national team. He played his last match in Serie A on 15 April 1934, in a 2–1 win over Brescia. In total Combi played for 13 seasons with Juventus, totaling 348 Serie A matches and another 16 games in the Central European Cup,[1] an international competition for clubs where Juventus played four consecutive semi-finals from 1932 to 1935[11] to claim the record for most appearances by a goalkeeper for the club (370), a record he held for more than 40 years until Dino Zoff overtook him in the 1970s (476 matches), followed by Stefano Tacconi in the 1980s (377 matches), and subsequently Gianluigi Buffon.[12]

International career

Combi's first match for the

France in Turin on 22 March 1925. This match was played in Corso Marsiglia Stadium and this time the large score was in favor of the Azzurri, a victory of 7–0.[13]
After this match Combi never looked back and for the next ten years it was extremely rare to see another goalkeeper defending the Italian posts.

The

Olympisch Stadion of Amsterdam, the Azzurri won their first honour: the Bronze Medal of the 9th edition of the Olympic games
.

Other triumphs followed, the next being the winning of the inaugural

Austria 3–0 in Vienna[15] but won all the others, against Switzerland 3–2 in Zürich,[15] against Czechoslovakia 4–2 in Bologna[15] and the last match against Hungary
on 11 May 1930.

Combi made his debut as the Italian captain in his 33rd game on 15 November 1931.[15]

The 1934 World Cup

1934 World Cup, here with his Spanish colleague Ricardo Zamora
in the Quarter-finals.

Around the beginning of 1934, 31-year-old Gianpiero Combi was preparing to retire from football. In this season he was on the way to winning his fifth

Nazio-Juve
members - and was asked by Pozzo to postpone his retirement until the end of the tournament as his experience might be a great help. During a training session a few weeks before the beginning of the tournament, a shot by Pietro Arcari broke one of Ceresoli's forearms. This forced him to miss the World Cup and Combi again found himself the top goalkeeper in Italy, with the responsibility of leading the Azzurri to their debut in football's premier competition.

The first match was on 27 May 1934 when Italy played the first round of the World Cup in the

Stadio Comunale "Giovanni Berta" of Florence. The game against the Spanish team was a very difficult one, dominated by the speed and force used by both teams and finished in a 1–1 draw after extra time.[15] A replay had to be played the next day, in which Italy changed four players and Spain seven. Italy won 1–0 with a goal by Meazza.[15]

From left to right: Italian manager Pozzo, Monzeglio, Bertolini, Combi, Monti (half-hidden) and the assistant manager Carcano (behind) before the start of extra time in the victorious final versus Czechoslovakia.

Their semi-final opponents were the

Jules Rimet trophy from the Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini.[16]

End of career and retirement

A year later, in November 1935, Combi played only five of the eight matches in the International Cup and in his absence the Italian team won the trophy. He totalled 47 caps[2] for the Italian team, five of which were as captain.

Although he had stopped playing football, his passion for the sport remained all his life and he still held a number of unofficial positions with

Sweden (1–1) and Switzerland
(1–1) - the only competitive game of the five.

He died in Imperia on 12 August 1956, aged 53.

Style of play

Combi in action with Bianconeri in 1928

Despite his relatively small stature for a player in his position, Combi was a commanding keeper, who possessed notable strength, which he combined with his elegance, agility, intelligence, shot-stopping ability, positional sense, and excellent technique; throughout his career, he stood out in particular due to his consistency, efficient goalkeeping style, and composure, rather than flamboyance, even though he was capable of producing spectacular diving saves when necessary.[17][18] He is regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time.[19][20]

Records

  • Combi is the first goalkeeper to win four Italian Championships in a row.[21]
  • He played the 9th most games for Juventus in the Italian League, and the 24th most in all competitions; he is the goalkeeper with the fourth-most appearances for Juventus (370), behind Stefano Tacconi, Dino Zoff, and Gianluigi Buffon.[12]
  • Combi kept an unbeaten streak for
    Italian Football Championship,[23] until it was bettered by Gianluigi Buffon, who went unbeaten for 974 minutes during the 2015–16 Serie A season.[24]

Honours

Club

Juventus[20]

International

Italy[17]

Trivia

  • Gianpiero Combi,
    goalkeepers to have won the FIFA World Cup as captain of their national teams.[25]
  • Combi, alongside František Plánička, was one of the only two goalkeepers-captains at the same World Cup final.[26]
  • He was also known in Italy as Uomo di Gomma (the Rubber Man) due to his agility and his carefree but secure saves.[1]
  • For the
    Stadio Comunale
    , was being considered by the Comune. Juventus proposed the name Stadio Gianpiero Combi, but the idea was finally abandoned and the stadium remained with its previous name.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c (in Italian) Statistic Area - All Juventus FC players: Gianpiero Combi - www.juworld.net
  2. ^ a b c d Special on the Azzurri - the greatest: Gianpiero Combi- www.figc.it Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Gianpiero Combi". Olympedia. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  4. ^ (in Italian) Calcio (sport): calciatori celebri (page 4) - it.encarta.msn.com. Archived 2009-10-31.
  5. ^ "Goalkeepers who belied their size". FIFA. 18 November 2011. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  6. ^ Mirko Graziano (19 November 2011). "Buffon Prende Combi, punta Tacconi Se rinnova può arrivare a Zoff" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  7. RSSSF
    .
  8. ^ (in Italian) All Juventus FC matches: Italian Federal Championship (pages 14 and 15) - www.juworld.net.
  9. ^ (in Italian) Italian Football Championship: The birth of FIGC Serie A Archived 11 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine - www.storiedicalcio.altervista.org
  10. ^ a b (in Italian) 1934 Italia: The three schools confront (chapter four) Archived 15 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine - www.storiedicalcio.altervista.org
  11. ^ Mitropa Cup - rsssf.org
  12. ^ a b (in Italian) Statistics: players with most matches at Juventus FC - www.juworld.net
  13. ^ a b c d Italy - International Matches 1920-1929 - rsssf.org
  14. ^ Also known as the Švehla Cup. After the Second World War the championship was known as the Dr. Gerö Cup.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Italy - International Matches 1930-1939 - rsssf.org
  16. ^ (in Italian) 1934 Italia: 10 June 1934, the final match (chapter ten) Archived 14 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine - www.storiedicalcio.altervista.org
  17. ^ a b Salvatore Lo Presti. "Combi, Giampiero" (in Italian). Trecccani: Enciclopedia dello Sport (2002). Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  18. ^ Stefano Fiori (8 September 2018). "La classifica dei 10 portieri italiani più forti di tutti i tempi" (in Italian). foxsports.it. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  19. ^ "I PIU' GRANDI NUMERI UNO" [The Greatest Number Ones] (in Italian). Storie di Calcio. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  20. ^ a b Stefano Bedeschi (20 November 2014). "Gli eroi in bianconero: Giampiero COMBI" (in Italian). Tutto Juve. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  21. 1945–46 season to 1948–49 season) and Gianluigi Buffon (who was won the scudetto with Juventus from 2011–12 to 2015–16
    ), who are the only other Italian goalkeepers to win 4 consecutive Scudetti.
  22. ^ "20 dicembre 1902: nasce Combi, il "nonno" di Zoff e Buffon" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 20 December 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  23. ^ From the third match (Juventus 6–0 Milan on 25 October 1925) to thirteenth match (Parma 0–3 Juventus on 28 February 1926) of the 1925–26 FIGC Football Championship according to (in Italian) All Juventus FC matches: Italian Federal Championship (pages 14 and 15) - www.juworld.net.
  24. ^ "Gianluigi Buffon sets goalkeeping record as Juventus sweep aside Torino". The Guardian. 20 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  25. ^ Anand Muralidharan (16 July 2018). "World Cup-winning captains XI". sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  26. ^ Football World Cup, 1934, Italy - www.bbc.co.uk
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