Alcides Ghiggia
Encyclopedia
Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia (ˈɡiddʒa; born 22 December 1926 in Montevideo
, Uruguay
) is a former Italian Uruguayan
football
player. He achieved lasting fame for his decisive role in the final match of the 1950 World Cup. He is also the only surviving member of the Uruguayan team that defeated Brazil in that particular game.
Ghiggia, an excellent dribbler on the right wing, 1,69 m short and 62 kg light, is considered one of the best wingers of the 1950s. The World Cup winner of 1950 played for the national sides of Uruguay and Italy. He also played for the club sides of the Peñarol and Danubio in Montevideo and AS Roma and AC Milan in Italy.
He reached a low point in his career in 1952 when he attacked a referee and subsequently was barred for about a year.
At the beginning of the European 1953/54 season Ghiggia moved to AS Roma in the Italian Serie A
, where he was even team captain in 1957/58. With Roma he won the 1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
, the precursor to the UEFA Cup
, albeit he took no part in the finals against Birmingham City. With almost 35 years of age he was then the oldest player of his team.
In eight seasons he played 201 Serie A matches for Roma scoring 15 goals. The best league ranking in this period was third place in 1955.
In 1961 he moved to AC Milan for a year and won the Scudetto, the Italian championship, with the rossoneri, albeit only playing four league matches in the whole season. After this he left Milan to return to his home country.
After his return to Montevideo Ghiggia joined the then minor first division club Danubio FC. Without adding to his collection of titles he eventually retired from the game in the late 1960s, aged 41.
in front of a crowd of about 200,000 against the highly fancied home side Brazil.
The hosts only needed a draw to secure the world title and well into the second half led the match 1-0. After about an hour Uruguay managed to equalise through a goal by Juan Alberto Schiaffino
, but it was Ghiggia ten minutes before the end who sent South America's largest nation into collective misery when he overcame Brazil's goalkeeper Barbosa, who in the eyes of some, looked not at his very best in this situation.
In Brazilian folklore this match remains alive as the Maracanaço.
Roberto Muylaert, the biographer of the Brazilian goalkeepper, compares the black and white film of this goal with Abraham Zapruder
's chance images of the Kennedy
assassination in Dallas. The goal and the shot that killed the US President have "the same dramatic pattern… the same movement… the same precision of an unstoppable trajectory…. They even have the dust in common that was stirred up, here by a rifle and there by Ghiggia's left foot."
Moacir Barbosa, who was blamed for the defeat and especially Ghiggia's goal was to suffer for a long time in the aftermath of this match. Life became a torture for him. In 2000, shortly before his death, he said in an interview: "The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years imprisonment, but I have been paying, for something I am not even responsible for, by now for 50 years."
Ghiggia was amazed when he travelled to Brazil half a century after the event and a female customs officer in her twenties asked him if he was the Ghiggia. Ghiggia answered, "yes, but all that happened 50 years ago". She replied: "we in Brazil still feel this moment as if it were today".
In the course of the 1950 World Cup tournament Ghiggia scored a goal in each of his matches. Those four goals remained the only ones scored in his total 12 matches played for Uruguay between 1950 and 1952.
Italian citizen in 1957 he played between 1957-1959 for the national side of his adopted country. Three matches he played in the course of the ill-fated qualification for the World Cup 1958 in Sweden when Italy failed for the first time to make it to the final tournament of a World Cup. In his altogether five matches for Italy he scored one goal.
Also Ghiggia's Uruguayan team mate from 1950, Juan Alberto Schiaffino
who scored the 1-1 equalizer in the infamous match versus Brazil, played after his move - for a world record transfer fee - to AC Milan in 1954 for the Italian national team,
in 1980.
In 1996, Uruguayan band Casa de Jardinería recorded a cover of Los del Rio
smash hit Macarena
. The lyrics were changed for the song, which was entitled "Maracanaã Macarena" and featured Ghiggia himself putting together a short scat singing
final verse. The song has a cult popularity in Uruguay, though is relatively difficult to come across internationally.
When all former winners were invited to the opening of the World Cup 2006 in Munich
, Germany
, Ghiggia was the oldest.
At his 80th birthday at the end of the same year he was honoured in the parliament of Uruguay and a special postage stamp bearing his image and the words "Ghiggia moved us to tears" (Ghiggia nos hizo llorar) was released.
Alcides Ghiggia remains one of the ultimate heroes of his country on the mouth of the Rio de la Plata
which has contributed to the sport of football well beyond its size.
On 12/29/2009, Brazil honoured Ghiggia by celebrating his decisive goal in the 2-1 Uruguay victory over Brazil in the final match of the 1950 FIFA World Cup. So Ghiggia returned to Maracanã Stadium almost 60 years later for this honour and planted his feet in a mould to take his place alongside greats including Brazil's Pelé
, Portugal's Eusébio
and Germany's Franz Beckenbauer
at the Maracanã Stadium walk of fame. Alcides Ghiggia was very emotional and thanked Brazil for the warm reception and recognition even when the game is remembered as the most disappointing match in Brazilian soccer history known as "Maracanazo."
, Pope
John Paul II and I.
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
) is a former Italian Uruguayan
Italian settlement in Uruguay
An Italian Uruguayan is an Uruguayan citizen of full or partial Italian ancestry. Almost half of the population is of Italian origin or has some degree of Italian descent...
football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
player. He achieved lasting fame for his decisive role in the final match of the 1950 World Cup. He is also the only surviving member of the Uruguayan team that defeated Brazil in that particular game.
Ghiggia, an excellent dribbler on the right wing, 1,69 m short and 62 kg light, is considered one of the best wingers of the 1950s. The World Cup winner of 1950 played for the national sides of Uruguay and Italy. He also played for the club sides of the Peñarol and Danubio in Montevideo and AS Roma and AC Milan in Italy.
Club career
In 1948 Ghiggia got the opportunity to play for the Uruguayan top side CA Peñarol where was soon regarded indispensable. By 1949 he won his first national championship. A second one followed in 1951.He reached a low point in his career in 1952 when he attacked a referee and subsequently was barred for about a year.
At the beginning of the European 1953/54 season Ghiggia moved to AS Roma in the Italian Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
, where he was even team captain in 1957/58. With Roma he won the 1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition was the idea of Swiss pools supremo Ernst Thommen, Ottorino Barassi from Italy, and the English Football Association general secretary Stanley Rous, all of whom later became senior officials...
, the precursor to the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
, albeit he took no part in the finals against Birmingham City. With almost 35 years of age he was then the oldest player of his team.
In eight seasons he played 201 Serie A matches for Roma scoring 15 goals. The best league ranking in this period was third place in 1955.
In 1961 he moved to AC Milan for a year and won the Scudetto, the Italian championship, with the rossoneri, albeit only playing four league matches in the whole season. After this he left Milan to return to his home country.
After his return to Montevideo Ghiggia joined the then minor first division club Danubio FC. Without adding to his collection of titles he eventually retired from the game in the late 1960s, aged 41.
Uruguay
The right winger of CA Peñarol of Montevideo became a legend of Uruguayan and world football when he scored the decisive goal in the de-facto final of the World Cup 1950 in the Maracanã Stadium of Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in front of a crowd of about 200,000 against the highly fancied home side Brazil.
The hosts only needed a draw to secure the world title and well into the second half led the match 1-0. After about an hour Uruguay managed to equalise through a goal by Juan Alberto Schiaffino
Juan Alberto Schiaffino
Juan Alberto "Pepe" Schiaffino Villano was an Italian Uruguayan football player. He played inside forward, in particular with CA Peñarol and AC Milan, and won the 1950 FIFA World Cup with the Uruguayan national team...
, but it was Ghiggia ten minutes before the end who sent South America's largest nation into collective misery when he overcame Brazil's goalkeeper Barbosa, who in the eyes of some, looked not at his very best in this situation.
In Brazilian folklore this match remains alive as the Maracanaço.
Roberto Muylaert, the biographer of the Brazilian goalkeepper, compares the black and white film of this goal with Abraham Zapruder
Abraham Zapruder
Abraham Zapruder was an American manufacturer of women's clothing. He was filming with a home-movie camera as U.S. President John F...
's chance images of the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
assassination in Dallas. The goal and the shot that killed the US President have "the same dramatic pattern… the same movement… the same precision of an unstoppable trajectory…. They even have the dust in common that was stirred up, here by a rifle and there by Ghiggia's left foot."
Moacir Barbosa, who was blamed for the defeat and especially Ghiggia's goal was to suffer for a long time in the aftermath of this match. Life became a torture for him. In 2000, shortly before his death, he said in an interview: "The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years imprisonment, but I have been paying, for something I am not even responsible for, by now for 50 years."
Ghiggia was amazed when he travelled to Brazil half a century after the event and a female customs officer in her twenties asked him if he was the Ghiggia. Ghiggia answered, "yes, but all that happened 50 years ago". She replied: "we in Brazil still feel this moment as if it were today".
In the course of the 1950 World Cup tournament Ghiggia scored a goal in each of his matches. Those four goals remained the only ones scored in his total 12 matches played for Uruguay between 1950 and 1952.
Italy
After Ghiggia became a naturalizedNaturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
Italian citizen in 1957 he played between 1957-1959 for the national side of his adopted country. Three matches he played in the course of the ill-fated qualification for the World Cup 1958 in Sweden when Italy failed for the first time to make it to the final tournament of a World Cup. In his altogether five matches for Italy he scored one goal.
Also Ghiggia's Uruguayan team mate from 1950, Juan Alberto Schiaffino
Juan Alberto Schiaffino
Juan Alberto "Pepe" Schiaffino Villano was an Italian Uruguayan football player. He played inside forward, in particular with CA Peñarol and AC Milan, and won the 1950 FIFA World Cup with the Uruguayan national team...
who scored the 1-1 equalizer in the infamous match versus Brazil, played after his move - for a world record transfer fee - to AC Milan in 1954 for the Italian national team,
Post-retirement
He managed C.A. PeñarolC.A. Peñarol
Club Atlético Peñarol also known as Carboneros, Aurinegros and familiarly as Manya, is an Uruguayan sports club based in the Peñarol barrio, Montevideo, best known for its professional football team. The team plays their home matches in Estadio Centenario, the largest stadium in the country, but...
in 1980.
In 1996, Uruguayan band Casa de Jardinería recorded a cover of Los del Rio
Los del Río
Los Del Rio, also known as "The Del Rios," was a Spanish Latin dance group formed in 1992 and broke up in mid-2007. They were best known by their smash-hit and hot dance single Macarena originally released in early 1994. The song peaked at the Hot Dance Singles and Billboard 200 by mid-1994. The...
smash hit Macarena
Macarena
-Places:* Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza de la Macarena , a church in Macarena, Seville* Macarena, Seville, a neighborhood in Seville, Spain, where "La Macarena" is located* Serranía de la Macarena, a range of mountains in Colombia...
. The lyrics were changed for the song, which was entitled "Maracanaã Macarena" and featured Ghiggia himself putting together a short scat singing
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
final verse. The song has a cult popularity in Uruguay, though is relatively difficult to come across internationally.
When all former winners were invited to the opening of the World Cup 2006 in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Ghiggia was the oldest.
At his 80th birthday at the end of the same year he was honoured in the parliament of Uruguay and a special postage stamp bearing his image and the words "Ghiggia moved us to tears" (Ghiggia nos hizo llorar) was released.
Alcides Ghiggia remains one of the ultimate heroes of his country on the mouth of the Rio de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
which has contributed to the sport of football well beyond its size.
On 12/29/2009, Brazil honoured Ghiggia by celebrating his decisive goal in the 2-1 Uruguay victory over Brazil in the final match of the 1950 FIFA World Cup. So Ghiggia returned to Maracanã Stadium almost 60 years later for this honour and planted his feet in a mould to take his place alongside greats including Brazil's Pelé
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
, Portugal's Eusébio
Eusébio
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, GCIH, GCM , commonly known simply as Eusébio, is a retired Mozambican-born Portuguese football forward. He is considered one of the best footballers of all-time by the IFFHS, experts and fans...
and Germany's Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Anton Beckenbauer is a German football coach, manager, and former player, nicknamed Der Kaiser because of his elegant style, his leadership, his first name "Franz" , and his dominance on the football pitch...
at the Maracanã Stadium walk of fame. Alcides Ghiggia was very emotional and thanked Brazil for the warm reception and recognition even when the game is remembered as the most disappointing match in Brazilian soccer history known as "Maracanazo."
Quote
Alcides Ghiggia: Only three people have ever silenced 200,000 people at the Maracanã with a single gesture: Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
John Paul II and I.
International goals
Goals for Uruguayan national team| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 2 July 1950 | Estádio Independência Estádio Independência The Estádio Raimundo Sampaio, usually known as Estádio Independência, is in the neighborhood of Horto in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil and was opened in 1950 for the FIFA World Cup held in Brazil that year. Initially with capacity for 30,000 people, currently has capacity for 25,000 people... , Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country... , Brazil Brazil Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... |
8 – 0 | 8 – 0 | 1950 FIFA World Cup 1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July, was the fourth FIFA World Cup. It was the first World Cup since 1938, the planned 1942 and 1946 competitions having been canceled owing to World War II... |
|
| 2. | 9 July 1950 | Estádio do Pacaembu Estádio do Pacaembu Estádio do Pacaembu , as it is usually called, is a football stadium in São Paulo, located on Praça Charles Miller, no nº - in Pacaembu neighborhood. Its official name is Estádio Municipal Paulo Machado de Carvalho and it is owned by the Municipal Prefecture of São Paulo... , São Paulo São Paulo São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among... , Brazil |
1 – 0 | 2 – 2 | 1950 FIFA World Cup | |
| 3. | 13 July 1950 | Estádio do Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil | 1 – 1 | 3 – 2 | 1950 FIFA World Cup | |
| 4. | 16 July 1950 | Estádio do Maracanã Estádio do Maracanã The Estádio do Maracanã , officially Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, is an open-air stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Owned by the Rio de Janeiro State Government, it is named after the Maracanã neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup, and in the final... , Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th... , Brazil |
2 – 1 | 2 – 1 | 1950 FIFA World Cup Final |
External links
- http://www.enciclopediadelcalcio.com/Ghiggia.html
- http://webs.montevideo.com.uy/chcesar/ghiggia.html
- http://www.futbol.com.uy/noticia_13424_1.html