Angelo Massimino was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 enterpreneur and 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...

 owner, who served as chairman of Calcio Catania

Calcio Catania

Calcio Catania is an Italian football club founded in 1908 and based in Catania, Sicily. The club has spent much of its history in Serie B, gaining promotion to Italy's top league Serie A five times...

 for almost 25 years.

A Sicilian

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 emigrant who made his fortune in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, returned in Catania during the 1950s and, together with his brothers, founded in 1962 an amateur football club called Massiminiana, leading them up to Serie C

Serie C

The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico , commonly known as Lega Pro , is the governing body that runs the third and fourth highest football divisions in Italy, the Prima Divisione and Seconda Divisione respectively. It also includes the sole professional club of San Marino...

, where they played for four consecutive seasons. In 1968 he became the owner of Calcio Catania, and immediately invested in his new club, obtaining a promotion to 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...

 only one year later. He then resigned in 1972, following immediate relegation to Serie B followed by two poor seasons in the second-highest national division, but returned to serve as chairman two years later, immediately obtaining a second promotion. During the following years, Catania proved to be a yo-yo team, playing in all of the three highest national division, making a one-year comeback to Serie A in 1983. He left the club in 1987 following relegation to Serie C1

Serie C1

Lega Pro Prima Divisione is the name of the third highest football league in Italy. It consists of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 18 teams each. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1....

 and criticisms by the local supporters. He however returned once again in 1992 to save the club from bankruptcy, but was unable to avoid a controversial cancellation of his club one year later. The club cancellation was later declared invalid by the Italian magistrature, and Catania was readmitted to Italian football, namely into the Eccellenza

Eccellenza

Eccellenza is the sixth level of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and Aosta Valley which share 2 divisions...

 regional league, and immediately started to rise the football league pyramid with two consecutive promotions, despite Massimino's partial blindness and worsening health caused by diabetes. Angelo Massimino died in 1996, aged 69, in a road accident on the Palermo-Catania highway. His funeral in Catania was attended by over a thousand people.

Massimino is still remembered by Catania supporters as their most representative chairman, and the local stadium, formerly known as Cibali, was entitled after him on 2002. He was also nationally known for his poor Italian language

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

skills, heavily influenced by his Sicilian heritage, and several blunders who made him popular among Italian football fans.