Alcides Ghiggia
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Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia (born 22 December 1926 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a former football (soccer) player. He achieved lasting fame due to his decisive role in the decisive match of the 1950 World Cup
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 CA Peñarol and Danubio in Montevideo and AS Roma and AC Milan in Italy.
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[edit] Hero of the 1950 World Cup
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 Janeiro 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 largest nation into collecive 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." [1]
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 were 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 in his altogether 12 matches for Uruguay between 1950 and 1952.
[edit] Championships with Peñarol
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.
[edit] Moving to Italy
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 not 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.
[edit] Playing for the National team of Italy
After Ghiggia became a naturalized 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,
[edit] Return to Uruguay
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.
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 little country on the mouth of the Rio de la Plata which has contributed to the sport of football well beyond its size.
[edit] Quote
Alcides Ghiggia: Only three people have managed to quiet down the Maracanã with a single action: Frank Sinatra, Pope John Paul II and I.
[edit] Statistical career summary
| Era | Club / Team | Matches | Goals | Titles |
| 1962-1968 |  Danubio FC Montevideo |
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| 1961-1962 |  AC Milan |
4 | 1962 - Championship of Italy | |
| 1953-1961 | AS Roma |
201 | 19 | 1961 - Inter-Cities Fairs Cup |
| 1948-1953 | CA Peñarol Montevideo |
1949 - Championship of Uruguay 1951 - Championship of Uruguay |
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| National Teams | ||||
| 1957-1959 | Italy |
5 | 1 | |
| 1950-1952 | Uruguay |
12 | 4 | 1950 - World Cup |
[edit] Weblinks - References
- ^ as per Alex Bellos: Futebol The Brazilian Way of Life, Bloomsbury, New York and London, 2005
- http://www.enciclopediadelcalcio.com/Ghiggia.html
- http://webs.montevideo.com.uy/chcesar/ghiggia.html
- http://www.futbol.com.uy/noticia_13424_1.html
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