Luciano Vassalo

Luciano Vassalo
Personal information
Date of birth 1935
Place of birth Asmara, Eritrea
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
1950-1960 Stella Asmarina, Ferrovieri Asmara, GS Gaggiret, GS Asmara
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1960–1965 Cotton Factory Club
1966-1971 Saint-George SA
National team
1960-1971 Ethiopia 104 (90)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Luciano Vassalo (15 August 1935) (born in Asmara, Eritrea) is a former Ethiopian footballer of Eritrean and Italian origin. He is known for his skill, and mostly for his volleys, free kicks and penalties. He played professionally with Saint-George SA along with his brother Italo.

Data

Luciano played for the Ethiopia national football team in the qualifying rounds for the 1962 FIFA World Cup.[1] With his brother Italo, Luciano was part of the 1962 African Cup of Nations campaign when Ethiopia won their only trophy to date. Luciano, captain of the team, scored 2 goals in the semifinal against Tunisia and was tied for third highest scorer in the tournament, and was named player of the tournament, the only Ethiopian to claim that award.[2] He was personally handed the trophy by His Highness Haile Selassie. In 2006, CAF began the selection for the best African footballer in the last fifty years. Luciano, along with legendary teammate and friend Mengistu Worku were selected in the group of the top 50 players, as the only Ethiopians, but were not selected in the final 30, where Roger Milla was named number one.

Many consider Vassalo to be the best Ethiopian footballer in history, after Mengistu Worku and Ydnekatchew Tessema. After retirement, he had a short stint in coaching, with the then Dire Dawa Cotton FC.

Data & Biography

Luciano Vassalo (or Vassallo) was born in 1935 Asmara from an Eritrean girl and an Italian military soldier.

When young he played in local teams like the "GS Asmara", that was an Ethiopian team because Eritrea was annexed to Ethiopia (from 1947).[3] In the 1960s he played in the Cotton FC of Dire Dawa, where he won the Ethiopian Championship in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1965.[4]

Then he played in the Saint-George SA of Addis Abeba (the most famous Ethiopian team) and won the Ethiopian championships of 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1971.

As a football player he was in the following teams:

  • 1950-1952.............Stella Asmarina
  • 1952-1953.............Ferrovieri Asmara
  • 1953-1958.............GS Gaggiret
  • 1958-1960.............GS Asmara [5]
  • 1960-1965.............Cotton FC (Dire Dawa)
  • 1965-1971.............Saint-George SA (Addis Abeba)

Later, Luciano played for the Ethiopia national football team in the qualifying rounds for the 1962 FIFA World Cup.[6]

By then in his mid-twenties, Luciano Vassalo came of age as a player while wearing the colours of GS Asmara. His left the defensive line to become an astute advanced playmaker. He wove patterns of play masterfully, but he had also become an insidious shooter. A successful team, during the run-up to the 1959 Africa Cup of Nations GS Asmara had managed to humiliate the Ethiopia national team in a friendly match. A picture of the 1960 GS Asmara squad is featured on the Mai Taclì: among 10 white faces wearing the team’s vertical-striped black and red jersey, Luciano Vassallo’s light brown skin stands out. Damiano Benzoni [7]

With his brother Italo, Luciano was also part of the 1962 African Cup of Nations campaign when Ethiopia won their only trophy to date. He played at FIFA World Cup qualifiers in 1970.[8] Luciano, captain of the team, scored 2 goals in the semifinal against Tunisia and was tied for third highest scorer in the tournament, and was named player of the tournament, the only Ethiopian to claim that award.[9]

He was personally handed the trophy by His Highness Haile Selassie. In 2006, CAF began the selection for the best African footballer in the last fifty years. Luciano, along with legendary teammate and friend Mengistu Worku were selected in the group of the top 50 players, as the only Ethiopians, but were not selected in the final 30, where Roger Milla was named number one.

Many consider Vassalo to be the best Ethiopian footballer in history, after Mengistu Worku and Ydnekatchew Tessema. After retirement, he had a short stint in coaching, with the then Dire Dawa Cotton FC.

Luciano Vassalo actually is the player with most presences in the Ethiopian national team: "I had the national shirt 104 times and I am even the best national team player with 90 goals"....said Luciano in an interview... L'Avvenire Sport

Successively to the African tournament he played in the famous Saint-George SA of the Ethiopian capital, with his brother Italo. He then went to study as team coach in the "Coverciano national football school". Indeed, after retirement from active footballer, he had a short stint in coaching, with the Dire Dawa's Cotton FC. In 1969-1970 he was even coach of the Ethiopian national team.

Indeed, as a football coach he worked in:

  • 1968-1973.... Dire Dawa Cotton FC
  • 1969-1970.... Ethiopia national team
  • 1974............. Ethiopia national team
  • 1974............. Saint-George SA
  • 1975............. Airforce team
  • 1976............. Electric team
  • 1978............. Ethiopia national team

Luciano Vassalo in the 1970s was jailed by the dictator Mengistu's soldiers, and accused of being a "mulatto" (meaning: half Italian) spy of the western colonialists. But he was able to escape to Italy.

When took refuge in Italy, in 1978 he obtained the Italian citizenship (because his father Vittorio was Italian) and owned a mechanic car shop. Later he founded in Ostia (the port of Rome) a school for young footballers: the Olimpia Ostia.[10] After some years living in Rome, he even published a book in 2000 about his life, titled Mamma ecco I soldi.[11]

In 2006, CAF began the selection for the best African footballer in the last fifty years. Luciano, along with legendary teammate and friend Mengistu Worku were selected in the group of the top 50 players, as the only Ethiopians, but were not selected in the final 30, where Roger Milla was named number one. Luciano Vassalo -because he played football when his native Eritrea was part of Ethiopia- is always defined as an "Ethiopian footballer", but lately he is also being reconsidered by Eritrean sport authorities as an "Eritrean with Italian roots" football player & coach.


Actually he is retired and lives in Rome.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Owsianski, Jaroslaw. "World Cup 1962 - Goal Scorers". RSSSF. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  2. ↑ "African Nations Cup: How It All Began". This Day Online. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  3. ↑ Interview of Luciano Vassalo about his life (in Italian)
  4. ↑ List of Ethiopian Champions
  5. ↑ Photo of the 1960 "GS Asmara", showing the Italo-eritrean champion Luciano Vassalo standing second to the right
  6. ↑ Owsianski, Jaroslaw. "World Cup 1962 - Goal Scorers". RSSSF. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  7. ↑ ) "Citizen of Nowhere" (]
  8. ↑ Photo of Luciano Vassalo (on the left side) and his brother Italo
  9. ↑ "African Nations Cup: How It All Began". This Day Online. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
  10. ↑ Antonio Felici. "Stella d'Africa - La vita straordinaria di Luciano Vassallo, mito del calcio africano anni '60, esule in Italia", Introduction
  11. ↑ Book written by Luciano Vassalo

Bibliography

  • Antonio Felici. Stella d'Africa - La vita straordinaria di Luciano Vassallo, mito del calcio africano anni '60, esule in Italia Edizioni Coralli, Roma, 2014 (Excerpts)
  • Vassalo, Luciano. Mamma ecco i soldi. Editore: Coralli. Roma, 2000 ISBN 8890453664
  • Wilson, Jonathan et al. The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue Twenty Five Publisher Blizzard Media Ltd. London, 2017 (Luciano Vassalo football life)

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