Mario Corso

Mario Corso
	Inter
Personal information
Full name	Mario Corso
Date of birth	25 August 1941
Place of birth	Verona, Italy
Date of death	19 June 2020 (aged 78)
Place of death	Milan, Italy
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Winger
Youth career
	A.C. Audace SME
Senior career*
Years	Team
1957–1973	Inter
1973–1975	Genoa
Total
International career
1961–1971	Italy
Managerial career
1978–1982	Napoli Primavera
1982–1983	Lecce
1983–1984	Catanzaro
1984–1985	Inter Primavera
1985–1986	Inter
1987–1989	Mantova
1989–1990	Barletta
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mario Corso (Italian pronunciation:

winger, he was regarded as one of the greatest Italian players in his position, earning the nicknames "Mandrake" and "God's Left Foot", due to his skills, free kick technique and crossing ability.^[2]

Corso was mostly remembered for his highly successful club career at

Mantova.^[1]^[3]

Club career

Corso was an important player of

Genoa in 1973, remaining there for two seasons before retiring in 1975. In total, he played 436 matches with 78 goals in Serie A.^[1]^[3]

International career

In total, Corso made 23 appearances for the

Italy national team over ten years, scoring four goals, although he was never elected to take part in a major international tournament with Italy. He made his debut in 1961, in a 3–2 home loss against England in an international friendly match. On 15 October 1961, he scored his first goals for Italy, scoring two goals against Israel in a 1962 FIFA World Cup qualifying match, which Italy won 4–2 away from home. He also scored a goal in the return leg on 4 November, in Turin. Following an argument with manager Edmondo Fabbri, he was left out of Italy's 1962 FIFA World Cup squad, which was eliminated in the first round of the tournament. He returned to the starting line-up in 1964, and on 10 May, he scored his final goal for Italy in a 3–1 victory against Switzerland. He would also later be excluded from Italy's squad in their similarly disappointing 1966 FIFA World Cup campaign, as well as Italy's victorious UEFA Euro 1968 squad, which won the tournament on home soil. He was once again excluded from the Italian side that would reach the final of the 1970 FIFA World Cup. Corso made his final appearance for Italy on 9 October 1971, in a 3–0 victory against Sweden. Along with Giuliano Sarti, Armando Picchi, Gianfranco Bedin, and Antonio Angelillo, he is one of the most successful Italian, Inter club players to have never been called up for a World Cup. Despite his exclusion from the national side, in 1967 FIFA placed him in their All-Star team for an international friendly against Spain, in honour of goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora, winning the match 3–0.^[1]^[3]

Style of play

A predominantly left-footed player, Corso was noted for his consistency, intelligence, pace on the ball, and stamina as a winger, as well as being renowned for his accurate distribution,

bending knuckleball free-kicks and shots from distance. In spite of his ability, the journalist Gianni Brera accused him of being inconsistent, lacking dynamism, and having a poor defensive work-rate, something which Corso himself denied, however; as a result, Brera gave Corso the nickname "past participle of the verb "to run"", a reference to his surname, as well as the fact that, according to Brera, Corso did not run a lot during matches, preferring to make the ball move.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]