Джорджо Кинаджалия: Футбол өмірі мен жетістіктері

Italian footballer (1947–2012)

Giorgio Chinaglia (; 24 January 1947 – 1 April 2012) was an Italian footballer who played as a striker. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales, and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. He later returned to Italy to play for Massese, Internapoli and S. S. Lazio in 1969. Chinaglia led Lazio to the club's first league championship in the 1973–74 season, during which he was also the league's leading scorer. He played international football for Italy, making 14 appearances and scoring 4 goals between 1972 and 1975, including two appearances at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Chinaglia was the first player in Italian football history to be called up internationally from the second division. In 1976, Chinaglia left Lazio to sign with the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. With the Cosmos team that also featured Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer, Chinaglia won four league titles, and retired in 1983 as the NASL's all time leading goal scorer with 193 goals. He is also the Italian player with the best goalscoring ratio in domestic championships, with 319 goals scored in 429 league matches played across both Italy and the United States. Chinaglia was given the nickname "Long John", a reference to Chinaglia's physical style of play, as well as his resemblance to the similarly large Welsh footballing legend John Charles who also played in Italy and Wales.

Chinaglia was born in Carrara, Tuscany in 1947, but in 1955, he moved to Cardiff, Wales with his father Mario, mother Giovanna and his sister Rita, because of unemployment in Italy following World War II. Because his family was poor, Chinaglia said, "All four of us lived in one room," he says, "My father was an ironworker and it was tough. I used to take the milk left on people's porches and drink it for breakfast." Chinaglia made his senior debut for Swansea in October 1964 at Rotherham United, with his League debut following in February. His final Swans appearance was in March 1966, coming on as a substitute against Brentford. With Swansea, Chinaglia won the 1965 West Wales Senior Cup, scoring in the 3–0 victory in the final against Llanelli, and represented the Swansea Senior Association Football League in 1964 in a representative match against the Birmingham & District Works Football Association.

In 1966, because of the lack of interest from British clubs and his compulsory Italian military service, Chinaglia, then age 19, and his family moved back to Carrara. He credited the military requirement with getting his career on track, saying, "Otherwise, I'd probably still be in Wales, slogging it out in the mud and drinking ale. The Italian army has a special regiment for soccer players, so all I did in the service was to train all day, and when my club had a game, get a pass." The following season, he joined another Serie C club, Internapoli in Naples, where he played two seasons and scored 26 goals in 66 matches.

In Rome, Chinaglia's family faced abuse from opposing fans and threats of kidnap by terrorist groups, and he voiced frustration at Italian tax and corporate laws that he said led to business failures. In 1972, Chinaglia began investing in American real estate while on a tour of the United States with Lazio. And in 1975, his family bought a house in Englewood, New Jersey with the idea that he would commute to matches from there. Instead, he walked into the office of Clive Toye, then president of the New York Cosmos of NASL, and said he would either play for the Cosmos or buy his own team. Chinaglia scored 49 goals in 41 playoff games for the Cosmos for his career and scored five goals in five Soccer Bowls, three of which were game winners (1977, 1978, and 1982). In 1980 Chinaglia scored 76 goals in 66 total matches, including 32 goals in 32 regular season games and 18 goals in seven playoff games. The NASL regular season record for most goals is also held by Chinaglia with 34 goals in 1978. In December 1981, Chinaglia played indoor soccer, and in his first game against the Chicago Sting, he set an individual all time NASL indoor record for most goals in a single match, by scoring seven. He also became a close associate of Warner Brothers president Steve Ross, part owner of the franchise, and was known to thoroughly enjoy the cultural diversions that New York provided. In 1984, Cosmos, facing mounting losses and having never turned a profit, sold 60 percent of the club's ownership to Chinaglia, with no money exchanging hands. Chinaglia, at that time Lazio's president, handed the controls to his personal assistant and general manager Peppe Pinton. When the league and the club folded in 1986, Pinton ended up retaining the rights to the Cosmos name and memorabilia, including trophies and playing gear, associated with the club. In 2000, he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Chinaglia's play with Lazio earned him a place on head coach Ferruccio Valcareggi's shortlist for the Italy squad in the 1970 FIFA World Cup. He did not make the final 22 man squad, but Valcareggi took him to Mexico for experience. Along with his teammates Re Cecconi and Wilson, Chinaglia took part in 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany, although he was used scarcely by Italy manager Ferruccio Valcareggi. Chinaglia became notoriously famous for his strong verbal reaction when he cursed upon being substituted by Valcareggi for Anastasi during his nation's opening match of the tournament against Haïti, which ended in a 3–1 victory to the Italians, although they would later suffer a first round elimination from the competition. With his successor, Fulvio Bernardini, the situation did not improve. In total, he scored 4 goals for Italy in 14 appearances between 1972 and 1975.