Guido Onor was born in Arona, near Novara, on June 20 1948.
He began his career with Juventus in 1967-68 and after a season, with just two appearances, he was loaned to Lazio in an operation which saw three players pass to Lazio on loan for the Biancoceleste’s Serie B season (the other two were back up goalkeeper Pietro Fioravanti and midfielder Elio Rinero). As a matter of fact, Onor was sent to Rome and joined Lazio also because he had to do his annual obligatory military service in the capital.
Lazio in 1968-69 did very well under Juan Carlos Lorenzo and they won the Serie B championship. Onor got 12 league appearances and three in Coppa Italia, but the defender was not confirmed at the end of the season and went back to Turin. In 1969-70 he signed for Monza and stayed there two years. In the first, the club just missed out on promotion to Serie A by three points under Gigi Radice (later to win a scudetto with Torino), in the second they avoided relegation by three points.
In 1971 he signed for Livorno but they were relegated to Serie C. Same fate with Mantova a year later. In 1974 he signed with Messina in Serie C and stayed for two years. In 1976 he played a season at Salerno before returning to Messina for his final three years of active football which included a promotion from Serie D to Serie C2 in 1977-78.
In an interview in 2016 he spoke about his time with Lazio. “I played alongside Diego Zanetti, an icon, I was just a young lad doing his military service. One has to be reminded that there was also Facco, so that is why I did not have much playing time. I still have in my eyes my debut in the Italian Cup, in September, in the derby with Roma. We lost 1-0, we were in front of 70,000 spectators, the match took place at night. I remember the noise of the crowd while we were inside the Olimpico, it seemed to be in a hornet's nest”. He has pleasant memories of Lorenzo. “He was obsessed, but he was good and took manic care of the defensive aspect especially. Before the match he told me: At the end, you will have to tell me what your opponents smell of”. He was also very superstitious. “If in the previous home match we had won and the bus taking us to the Olympic stadium had arrived at Ponte Milvio on a green light, then Lorenzo didn't want it to stop if the light was red and gave the driver the order to slow down to reach the intersection on green." The polenta: "We went to play a match in the north. We were in a hotel on the sixth floor. He made us walk up the stairs for practice. On the menu there was polenta. On the Sunday we got a positive result. For the next away match, he looked for a similar hotel and the same menu. He had polenta bought specifically, even though it was spring”.
Lazio Career
Season | Total Appearances | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
1968-69 | 15 | 12 | 3 |
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