Name: Giuseppe (Peppino) Meazza
Nickname: il Balilla
Date of Birth: 23 August 1910
Place of Birth: Milano, Italy
Died: 1979
Position: Midfielder
National Team
Games: 53 (Inter) Goals: 33 (Inter) Captain: 17 (Inter)
Honours: 2-World Champion 1934, 1938 (Captain).
2-Coppa Internazionale 1930, 1935
Records: First player to win two World Cups and consecutive ones.
First player to win a World Cup outside his home country.
First European player to win two World Cups and also
consecutive ones
Trainer: 8games - 2 wins, 2 draws, 4 lost
Seria A
Clubs: Ambrosiana-Inter, Milan, Juventus, Atalanta, (Varese)
Seasons: 17 (Inter-13, Milan-2, Juventus-1, Atalanta-1)
Games: 439 (Inter-361, Milan-37, Juventus-27, Atalanta-14)
Goals: 264 (Inter-243, Milan-9, Juventus-10, Atalanta-2)
Honours: 2-Italian Champion (Inter-1929/30, 1937/38)
3-Seria A Top Scorer (Inter-1929/30 31goals, 1935/36 25goals, 1937/38 20goals).
2-Seria A Runner-up Top Scorer (Inter-1930/31 25goals, 1931/32 22goals
1-Coppa Italia (Inter 1938/39)
Records: 6 Goals in one Match, 12 May 1929 Inter v Venezia 10-2

Peppino Meazza, regarded the best soccer player Italy has ever produced, was born on the 23 August 1910 in Milano. He was noted playing in a small ground on the outskirts of the Lombard city and made his debut with Inter at the age of 17 in 1927 when in a game of the Coppa Volta he scored two goals against Dominante. From this first game he immediately impressed everyone and from then onwards he never disappointed his fans.His play was elegant, intelligent, correct and his speciality was always to start his run with the ball from half ground, dribbling and making false movements to get rid of his opponents until he arrives in front of the poles and scoring by dribbling the goalkeeper. It is known that during the 1933 season Meazza made a bet with Giampiero Combi, the legendary goalkeeper of Juventus and the captain of the 1934 World Champion Italian National Team. During a discussion between the two friends about the intuition of goalkeepers to understand the false movements of star attackers when they come face to face, Combi said that not even Meazza could sidestep him when they came in front of each other. Meazza challenged him and Combi accepted. The next game between Ambrosiana Inter and Juventus was played in the Arena di Milano and Meazza managed to score a beautiful goal when he run from half ground with the ball dribbling many defenders, amongst them the Italo-Argentin Luisito Monti another 1934 World Champion,
and beating Combi by a false move to enter in the net with the ball. It is said that Combi immediately went and shook his hand.
His goal-scoring record is impressive. He scored in all his 17 Seria A seasons, a total of 264 goals in 439 games. He won three times the Seria A top-scorer (1929-30, 1935-36, 1937-38) and twice finished runner-up (1930-31, 1931-32). His first Hat-trick arrived in October 1928 when Inter won 5-1 against Brescia. He scored 5 goals in one game, twice in one season: 6 January 1929 Inter v Pistoiese 9-1 and 17 March 1929 Inter v Verona 9-0. But in the same season (1928/29) he also had his greatest moment in his club career when on the 12 May 1929 in the game Inter v Venezia 10-2 he scored six goals an absolute record still held up till this day.With the blue national team shirt he scored 33 goals in 53 games, remaining the azzurri top-scorer for more then 30 years until the 1970s. Today he is still holding as the runner-up national team top scorer with just two goals difference from the top scorer Riva. With the azzurro his greatest moments as scorer were when he scored a double and hit the post against the 'Masters' England with Italy 3-0 down and with only 10 players on the field in the 'Battle of Highbury' (14 November 1934 England v Italy 3-2) and a hat-trick against the mighty Hungary in Budapest (11 May 1930 Hungary v Italy 0-5).

He made his debut in the national team at the age of 19 on the 9th February 1930 in the Stadio Nazionale del P.N.F. in Rome. In that occasion Italy played a friendly game against Switzerland and won 4-2 although after only 19 minutes they were already two goals down. Meazza scored two goals in this match in less then two minutes on the 37 and 39 minutes.In the same year of his debut he won with Italy it's first major trophy when they won the 1st Edition of the Coppa Internazionale a sort of 'European Nations Cup' held between the central European countries. This was a prelude to the 1934 victory in the World Cup when Italy became World Champions on their home ground. Therefore, together with his other 21 friends in the squad they became the first Europeans to win the World Cup. In that occasion Meazza played in all the five games and scored two goals. In 1935 he again formed part of the group who won for the second time the Coppa Internazionale (3rd Edition) - nine Italian players won both editions of the Coppa Internazionale and Meazza was one of them.In 1938 he lead as Captain the Azzurri to yet another World Championship victory when Italy won the Rimet Cup in France. He again played in all the four games and scored one goal. Together with his teammates they became the first players to win a World Cup outside their country and with Giovanni Ferrari and Eraldo Monzeglio he has the record of being the first player to win two World Cups and consecutive ones. Up till today all three are still the only Europeans who achieved this record. He played his last match with the Azzurri nine years after his debut, on the 20 July 1939 at the Olympiastadion in Helsinki when he captained Italy to a 3-2 win over Finland in a friendly match. In total he played 53 games, 17 of them as Captain and scored 33 goals with the National team.With Inter (Ambrosiana) he played twelve consecutive seasons since his debut in Seria A, from 1927-28 to 1938-39, In these years he played 344 games, scored 241 goals, won two Italian Championships (1929-30, 1937-38) and one Coppa Italia (1938-39). Due to his extravagant life, in the late thirties he found himself in a bad economical situation at the same time that bad circulation in his left leg left him out of play for a whole season 1939-40. When he returned to play, his class was still evident but he lost his speed and a series of transfers lead him to play two seasons with Inter's arch rivals Milan (1940-41, 1941-42) and one season with Juventus (1942-43). During the Second World War he played 14 games and scored 7 goals with Varese in an unofficial competition and after the war he joined Atalanta for the season 1945-46. In total he played 37 games and scored 9 goals for Milan, played 27 games and scored 10 goals for Juventus and played 14 games with 2 goals for Atalanta. But with Inter in a real bad situation, the season 1946-47 saw him returning home as player-coach to help them survive the relegation. He scored 2 goals in 17 games, to reach a total with Inter to 361 games with 243 goals. His last match in the Seria A was Inter v Bologna in Stadio San Siro on the 29 June 1947.This was his last season as player bringing an end to seventeen years in the Seria A, playing 439 games and scoring 264 goals. He started coaching but this career wasn't very successful, as he never managed to pass his talents to his players. For fifteen months he also returned with the National team as trainer together with Beretta as the technical coach. During this period, from 24 February 1952 to 17 May 1953, the Azzurri played 8 games winning 2, losing 4 and draw 2. He died in 1979 at the age of 68 and on the 23 August 1979, on the occasion of his 69th birthday the Council of the City of Milano changed the name of the stadium Stadio San Siro to Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

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