Top facts about Gianpiero Combi, the Great Italian Keeper

Gianpiero Combi was born on 20 November 1902 and died on 12 August 1956. He was an Italian football payer who played as a keeper. Combi spent his whole professional club career at Juventus, where he won five Italian League trophies. At international level, Combi won the 1934 FIFA World Cup with the Italy national team, in addition to two Central European International Cups in 1930 and 1935, and an Olympic bronze medal in 1928.

One of the top facts about Gianpiero Combi is that he was considered one of the best keepers in the world during the 1930s, along with Ricardo Zamora and František Plánička, and is considered as one of Italy's greatest ever goalkeepers. In a 1999 IFFHS poll, he was chosen Italy's second greatest goalkeeper of the twentieth century, behind only 

, and the sixteenth best European keeper of the century, alongside Rinat Dasayev.

Top Facts about Gianpiero Combi, the Great Italian Keeper

Gianpiero Combi was an Italian footballer, goalkeeper, world champion and captain of the Italian national team in 1934. Together with Ricardo Zamora and František Plánička, he is considered, by both journalism and sports historiography, one of the best European goalkeepers of the twentieth century (ranked 16th in the ranking drawn up by the IFFHS ).

Trained in the 

 youth sector, Gianpiero Combi spent his entire sporting and managerial activity in the Turin club, in which he played for twelve years between the 1920s and 1930s, winning five Serie A championships, four of which were lifted consecutively. Gianpiero Combi, together with full-backs Virginio Rosetta and Umberto Caligaris, all three teammates in the club and the national team formed what is considered by the pundits to be the best defensive line of all time played in Italian football and one of the best in the history of the beautiful game.

One of the

top facts about Gianpiero Combi

is that for ninety years (from 1926 to 2016) he held the absolute unbeaten record (934') in the history of the Italian top flight.

He was also director of Juventus' swimming and ice hockey sections during the 1940s.

Gianpiero Combi quick information

• Date of birth/Age:

   Dec 20, 1902

• Place of birth:

   Torino

• Citizenship:

   Italy

• Date of death:

   13.08.1956 (At the age of 53)

• Position:

   Goalkeeper

• Height:

   1,74 metre

• Former International:

   Italy national team

• Foot:

  Right

• International games/Goals:

   47/0

Gianpiero Combi Club career

Gianpiero Combi was born in the city of Turin on 20 November 1902 and played for Juventus youth team. He made his first appearance in the Italian Serie A on 5 February 1922 in a game against Milan. As said before, Combi spent his full professional club career with Juventus F.C.. He played in 351 matches in Serie A, winning five trophies. In 1926 he conceded only 18 goals during the season. 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934 were a part of the first golden age of Bianconeri with a record of five championship win in a row, an achievement known as Il Quinquennio d'Oro (The Golden Quinquennium).

Gianpiero Combi formed a tough defensive line Along with Virginio Rosetta and Umberto Caligaris (known in Italy as the Trio Combi-Rosetta-Caligaris), for both Juventus club and the Italy national team.

Gianpiero Combi played in his last game in Serie A on 15 April 1934, in a 2–1 victory over Brescia. In total, Gianpiero played for 13 seasons at Juventus, totalling 348 Serie A games and another 16 matches in the Central European Cup, an international tournament for clubs where Juventus played four back to back semi-finals from 1932 to 1935 to claim the record for most games by a keeper for the club (370), a record he held for more than 40 years until Dino Zoff passed him in the 1970s (with 476 games), followed by Stefano Tacconi in the 1980s (377 games), and subsequently 

.

Gianpiero Combi international career

Regarding his international career, Gianpiero Combi's first game for the Italy national team was in Budapest, when he was 21 years old, on 6 April 1924 in a 7–1 defeat to Hungary. He returned to Azzurri a year and after, he was absent in seven games.

In fact, Italian manager Vittorio Pozzo dropped him for the Olympics Games that year in Antwerp.

The Technical Commission made up of Rangone, Giuseppe Milano and Baccani chose him to make an appearance against France in Turin on 22 March 1925.

This match was played in Corso Marsiglia Stadium and this time, the Azzurri won with a large margin of score, which was a victory of 7–0. After this game Gianpiero Combi never looked back and for the next ten years, it was very uncommon to see another keeper defending the Italian goal.

The 1928 Olympic Games were held in Amsterdam and this time Gianpiero Combi made part of the team and played for the Italian national team for the rest of the competition: Quarter Final against Spain 1–1 after extra time, quarter-final replay against Spain 7–1, semi-final against Uruguay (3–2 defeat) and third-place final against Egypt 11–3. 

With this result on 10 June 1928 in the Olympisch Stadion of Amsterdam, the Azzurri achieved their first honour: the Bronze Medal of the 9th edition of the Olympic games.

Other victories followed, the next was the winning of the first edition of Central European International Cup, a predecessor cup of the European Nations Cup held between the National teams of Central Europe. In these matches, Italy were defeated against Matěj Šindelář's Austria 3–0 in Vienna but won all the others, against Switzerland 3–2 in Zürich, against Czechoslovakia 4–2 in Bologna and the last match against Hungary on 11 May 1930.

Gianpiero Combi made his first appearance as the Italian captain in his 33rd match on 15 November 1931.

Gianpiero Combi at the 1934 FIFA World Cup

Around the early 1934, 31-year-old Gianpiero Combi was preparing to retire from football. In this season, he was about to winning his fifth Italian title (which was his fourth consecutive titles) with Bianconeri and he had played in more than 40 matches for the Italy national team.

A new talented young keeper was emerging in the Italian football. He was Carlo Ceresoli, who played for Inter Milan. On his first appearance, Ceresoli had helped the national team to qualify for the 1934 World Cup, which was held in Italy that summer, by winning over Greece in Milan by a 4–0 victory. 

But the Italy national team manager Vittorio Pozzo included Combi in the Italian squad - he was also one of the Nazio-Juve players - and was asked by Pozzo to delay his retirement until the end of the FIFA World Cup as his experience might be a great benefit.

In a training session a few weeks before the beginning of the FIFA World Cup, a shot by Pietro Arcari broke one of Ceresoli's forearms. This forced him to miss the World Cup and Combi again found himself the top keeper in Italy national team, with the responsibility of leading the Azzurri to their debut in football's premier tournament.

The first game was on 27 May 1934 when Italy national team played the first round of the World Cup in the Stadio Nazionale of the P.N.F. in Rome against the United States. The Azzurri beat their rivals 7–1, a win provided by a hat trick from Angelo Schiavio, a double from Raimundo Orsi and a goal each from Giovanni Ferrari and Giuseppe Meazza. In the Quarter-finals the Italian players had to meet Spain, who were led by another great keeper of the time, Ricardo Zamora. The match was played on 31 May 1934 in the Stadio Comunale "Giovanni Berta" of Florence. The match against the Spanish national team was a very tough one, dominated by the rapidity and force used by both teams and finished in a 1–1 draw after extra time. A repetition of the match had to be played the next day, in which Italy changed four players and Spain seven. Italy beat Spain 1–0 with a goal by Giuseppe Meazza.

Their semi-final rivals were the Austrian Wunderteam, the team who had beaten the Italians 4–2 in Turin four months earlier. The game was played in Milan's Stadio Calcistico San Siro on 3 June and the Azzurri won 1–0 with a goal by Enrico Guaita.

Gianpiero Combi played a principally vital role as Italy beat the highly-fancied Austria 1-0 in the semi-final of the tournament when he made two marvellous saves to keep the score in favour of Italy until the end of the match. The saves were addressed by the Italian press as “miraculous”.

The final was held in Rome on 10 June 1934 against Czechoslovakia. The first half finished without a goal but in the 71st minute, against all odds, Antonin Puč managed to beat the Italian keeper, Gianpiero Combi. Ten minutes later Orsi scored the equaliser and the match went to extra-time. The sound of the fans was so great that the Italy manager Pozzo had to repeatedly run along with the pitch so that the Italian players could hear his instructions.

Finally, Italy won the final match through a goal by Schiavio and the Italian team were crowned World Champions. Gianpiero Combi, who played 510 minutes and conceded only three goals as captain of the Italy national team, received the Jules Rimet cup from the Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini.

The success in front of excited Italian fans in Rome capped a wonderful career for Gianpiero Combi, although it came about only by chance.

Gianpiero Combi end of career and retirement

One of the

top facts about Gianpiero Combi

is that a year later, in November 1935, he played only five of the eight games in the International Cup and in his absence, the Italian team won the trophy. Combi played in 47 international matches for the Italian team, five of which were as captain.

Even though Gianpiero Combi had stopped playing football, his desire for the sport continued in all his life and he still held a number of unofficial positions at Juventus. Combi offered advice to the technical staff and assisted as a scout as well. In 1951 the Italian Football Federation suggested him the career of technical chief for the Italian national team with Carlino Beretta and Toni Busini.

They led the Italian National Team for seven months, from 8 April to 25 November 1951, at which time the Italian team played 5 matches without any defeats. They beat Portugal and France 4–1, and drew against Yugoslavia (0–0), Sweden (1–1) and Switzerland (1–1). The latter was the only competitive match of the five.

Gianpiero Combi death

Gianpiero Combi died in Imperia on 12 August 1956, aged 53. He died after suffering a heart attack at the wheel of his car.

Gianpiero Combi style of play

In spite of Gianpiero Combi’s relatively small physique for a footballer in his position, he was an impressive goalkeeper, who possessed remarkable power, which he combined with his style, agility, intelligence, shot-stopping skill, positional sense, and brilliant technique; throughout his professional career, he stood out in particular due to his reliability, efficient goalkeeping stylishness, and tranquillity, rather than showiness, even though he was capable of producing spectacular diving saves when necessary. He is regarded as one of the best keepers of all time.

Gianpiero Combi records

• Gianpiero Combi is the first keeper to lift four successive Italian Championships.

• Gianpiero Combi played the 9th most matches for Juventus in the Italian League, and the 24th most in all tournaments.

• Gianpiero Combi is the keeper with the fourth-most matches for Juventus (370), behind Stefano Tacconi, Dino Zoff, and Gianluigi Buffon.

• Gianpiero Combi kept a clean sheet streak for 934 consecutive minutes during the 1925–26 season, which was a record in the Italian Football Championship, until it was improved by Gianluigi Buffon, who managed to keep an unbeaten record for 974 minutes during the 2015–16 Serie A season.

Other top facts about Gianpiero Combi

One of the top facts about Gianpiero Combi is that the keeper, Dino Zoff (1982), Iker Casillas (2010) and Hugo Lloris (2018), are the only goalkeepers to have lifted the FIFA World Cup as captain of their national teams.

Gianpiero Combi, along with František Plánička, was one of the only two goalkeepers-captains at the same FIFA World Cup final.

One of the top facts about Gianpiero Combi is that he was also famous in Italy as Uomo di Gomma (meaning the Rubber Man) due to his quickness and his untroubled but secure saves.

Until Italy’s victory in Spain in 1982 FIFA World Cup, Gianpiero Combi was the only keeper to have been the captain of a winner of FIFA World Cup squad, while there are now three goalkeepers with whom he shares that difference.

Gianpiero Combi, Dino Zoff and Gianluigi Buffon, another FIFA World Cup winner, are in general regarded as Italy’s three best keepers. Coincidentally, all three footballers played the main part of their professional club careers wearing the black and white stripes of Bianconeri.

As well as helping Italy national team win the first of their four FIFA World Cups, Gianpiero Combi was twice a winner of the Central European International Cup, which was a predecessor of the modern European Championships. He also won a bronze medal as a member of the Italy squad at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Gianpiero Combi’s 370 matches for La Vecchia Signora over 13 seasons was the most by a goalkeeper for the club until Zoff (476) overtook him in the 1970s with Gianluigi Buffon eclipsing even Zoff with 656 appearances between 2001 and 2018.

Ironically, Gianpiero Combi could have spent his professional career with Turin’s other team, Torino, but after a trial game they let him go on the grounds that he lacked the power and athleticism to be a successful football player.  Juventus, however, saw him as a good talent and he joined their youth team.

One of the

top facts about Gianpiero Combi

is that he was given his first-team debut in 1922 in conditions that were comparable to his recall to the national team at the FIFA World Cup in 1934, asked to step up after the first Juventus keeper, Emilio Barucco, was injured.

He soon became first keeper for the Bianconeri and was selected for the Italy national team for the first time in 1924, while his Azzurri debut did not go as he had hoped. Italy lost 7-1 to the excellent Hungary. He later said that the game was one of the most important of his professional career, making him resolve to work harder during his career.

One of the top facts about Gianpiero Combi is that for Combi’s memory, Juventus club named the first team's training ground after him and created a Giampiero Combi award for brilliance among their youth football players. The Merano Littorio sports ground,which was built as a base for the Italian national side during the 1934 FIFA World Cup, was renamed in his honour.

Gianpiero Combi stadium

Before the 1980 European Championship in Italy, the thought to change the name of the main stadium in Turin, the Stadio Comunale, was being considered by the Comune. Juventus offered the name Stadio Gianpiero Combi, but in the end the idea was abandoned and the stadium remained with its previous name.

Gianpiero Combi honours

Juventus

• Serie A in 1925–26, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1933–34

International

Italy

• FIFA World Cup: 1934

• Central European International Cup in 1927-30, 1933-35

• Central European International Cup in Runner-up: 1931-32

• Summer Olympics: Bronze in 1928

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