Dante Filippi must be considered one of the best forwards Lazio have ever had and maybe one of the first “golden boys” of the Biancocelesti.
Born in Rome on August 21, 1904, he started playing very young. In 1920 he was noted in Villa Borghese, in those games among kids which never lasted less than five hours a match. He was quickly signed by Lazio, of which he was already a fan, and he started playing for the “boys” youth team.
Fernando Saraceni I realised how good he was and forced the manager to promote him to the first team and he debuted in a game against Fortitudo at 15 and a half years of age. He never left the first eleven and was soon joined by another golden boy, Fulvio Bernardini. Together the two made history and in 1923 Lazio reached the national final where they were beaten by Genoa 4-1, in Genoa, with three penalties awarded to the champions. Filippi was the Lazio scorer in the final. He had also set a record of five goals in a match in an earlier game against US Romana.
Filippi continued to be a goal scoring machine but suffered Bernardini's strong character. Once Fuffo left Lazio, Filippi went back to scoring consistently but in 1926-27 he suffered a bad injury. Since he was the star of the team, he could not rest more than one match so he continued playing despite having a swollen knee.
Arguments with the club led him to leave Lazio in 1928 and he signed for Pontedera as player-manager. After a year he moved to Macerata then starting from 1930 he played for Cagliari who were promoted to Serie B in 1930-31. After a final year in Sardinia, he played two years with L’Aquila and Taranto before retiring. But he then accepted a job at Monte dei Paschi and continued playing the banking tournaments until he was 42.
In the 1950s he was called by President Remo Zenobi and asked to be a technical consultant. Forever a Lazio fan, he obviously accepted and came back to the club he loved.
He died in Rome on March 1, 1995. He made 101 appearances for Lazio with 67 goals.
Season | Total | National Championship | First Division | National Division | Canalini |
1920-21 | 12 (7) | 12 (7) | - | - | - |
1921-22 | 18 (10) | 16 (10) | - | - | 2 |
1922-23 | 20 (15) | 20 (15) | - | - | - |
1923-24 | 11 (17) | 11 (17) | - | - | - |
1924-25 | 11 (2) | 11 (2) | - | - | - |
1925-26 | 7 (5) | 7 (5) | - | - | - |
1926-27 | 20 (11) | - | 20 (11) | - | - |
1927-28 | 2 | - | - | 2 | - |
Total | 101 (67) | 77 (56) | 20 (11) | 2 | 2 |
Sources
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