Valentino Mazzola

Early career

Although he started working at a young age, Mazzola continued to cultivate his passion for football; he was the leader of Tresoldi, the team of Cassano d'Adda, who observed him playing in the fields and introduced him to their youth team in 1934. He briefly moved to Fara d'Adda and then returned to Tresoldi. He played as a centre midfielder and right-sided midfielder, even though he was already a multi-purpose player. He participated in his first season with Tresoldi in 1935–36, and the following year he played for the first team, earning 10 lire per game. In 1938, the same period when Alfa Romeo made him a work proposal that included the possibility of playing in Serie C, he received an offer from Milan, with the prospect of playing in Serie A. He was very indecisive and opted for Alfa Romeo as the car manufacturer also guaranteed him a job. At Alfa Romeo, he played one season as a winger; but according to another source, he instead played as a right midfielder. He scored 33 goals in 33 matches, and he left the team in 1939 to join the military service in Venice.

Venezia

In 1939, while he was performing his military service in the Navy, he took part in several matches in the team of the Navy, played on the field of basins, putting on a good display, despite weighing 90 kg. He was noted by some observers of Venezia, who, after various stresses, succeeded in getting him to try out; according to another source, a naval officer who was a fan of…

Mazzola made his debut for the national side on 5 April 1942, in a 4–0 friendly home win over Croatia. He scored his first international goal on 19 April, in a 4–0 friendly home win over Spain. Overall, Mazzola played 12 matches with the Italy national team between 1942 and 1949 and scored 4 goals, also serving as the side's captain between 1947 and 1949.

Mazzola is widely regarded as one of the best football players of his era. He was a versatile and physically apt player, capable of playing in multiple positions on the pitch. He was also noted for his charismatic presence and leadership on the field; contemporaries and later accounts describe his habit of raising his shirt sleeves during matches as a signal to his teammates and supporters that the team wasn't performing well. Mazzola was a quick, strong and energetic midfielder, with excellent technical qualities and dribbling skills, as well as notable stamina, positional sense, vision, creativity, and accurate shooting and passing ability with both feet. Because of his tactical intelligence and many attributes, he was capable of both scoring and creating goals for his team. He was also an excellent playmaker and highly regarded for his ability to orchestrate his team's attacking moves. Although he was usually deployed as an attacking midfielder, he was also capable of playing in more offensive roles, as a main forward, as a winger on either flank or as an inside or supporting striker. Despite his small stature, he excelled in the air due to his power, timing, heading accuracy, and elevation, which allowed him to beat larger players to the ball. Although he was mainly renowned for his offensive and creative capabilities, Mazzola was also highly competent defensively, often pressing and tackling opponents in order to win back possession, and was even capable of being…

He was born in Cassano d'Adda, Ricetto, a neighbourhood of abandoned homes, to a very modest family. His father, Alessandro, was a labourer for Azienda Torinese Mobilità and died in August 1940, hit by a truck. His mother's name was Leonina Ratti, and his four brothers were Piero, Silvio, Carlo and Stefano. He had an unsettled childhood; in 1929, his father was fired from his job because of the Great Depression. To help his family, Valentino sought work the following year, just as he finished the first year of grade school. He found employment as a baker's boy, then, at age 14, the linen mill at Cassano d'Adda. In the summer of 1929, at age 10, he threw himself into the river Adda to save the life of a boy four years his junior from drowning: his name was Andrea Bonomi, the future football player and captain of Milan. A Juventus fan at a young age, he was nicknamed "Tulen" for his habit of kicking old tin cans, which Valentino would kick on his journey between home and the linen mill. He played in his local neighbourhood team, the "Tresoldi" and was noticed by a football fan who worked as a test driver for the Alfa Romeo factory in Arese, who offered Valentino a place in the Alfa Romeo team and a job as a mechanic. In 1939, he was called up to join military service in the Royal Navy, in the port of Venice; he spent a few months on the ship, aboard the destroyer Confienza, and was later moved to the Compagnia del Porto. In Venice, he obtained his elementary school diploma,…