Lelio Antoniotti, known as Lello, was born in Bard (Aosta Valley) on January 17, 1928.
He started playing football with Sparta Novara and debuted in Serie C in the 1945-46 season.
In the following year he signed for Pro Patria in Serie B and with 22 goals in 35 appearances contributed to the club’s promotion to Serie A. The team then managed to stay in the top tier with an 8th place and Antoniotti scored 11 goals. Unfortunately, pleurisy maimed his subsequent two years where he made far fewer appearances (19 games with 9 goals). His last year in Lombardy was 1950-51 where he played a lot more but did not score as much, just six goals in 32 appearances.
In 1951-52 he signed for Lazio. The goal-scoring drought continued and in his two years in Rome he only scored ten goals in 53 games. In his first year Lazio finished 4th under Giuseppe Bigogno and Antoniotti got 6 goals (Udinese, Juventus, Legnano, SPAL, Juventus in 2-0 home win and Bologna). In his second season Lazio finished 10th, first under Bogogno and then Alfredo Notti, and Antoniotti scored 4 goals (Pro Patria, Sampdoria, Palermo x2). Lazio won both derbies against newly promoted Roma.
He was no more prolific when he moved to Turin in 1953. With Torino he played 78 games with 13 goals over three seasons. The Granata finished 9th twice and 11th. Antoniotti did score against Lazio in Rome in a 2-0 Granata win and in a 2-2 derby draw against Juventus, both in 1954.
His last three years were with Juventus, Vicenza and Novara.
With the Bianconeri he played 18 league games with 2 goals (Sampdoria, Udinese) and finished 9th. He played alongside legends such as Giampiero Boniperti and Kurt Hamrin.
With the Biancorossi of Vicenza he played 16 league games with 1 goal and finished 7th.
Finally, with the Piedmontese Azzurri he played 7 games in Serie B and finished 10th.
He retired at 31.
When he finished playing football, he became part of the Italian Football Federation Staff and was in charge of courses on football techniques. Later on, he was one of the examiners for the Coverciano Manager courses.
Antoniotti was not a bad player, but perhaps he was too small (1.68 and 58 kilos) to be a centre-forward, more like Paolo Rossi without the speed than Christian Vieri. But he was good with his feet and knew what to do with the ball. The only problem is that a centre-forward has to score goals, and he scored too few.
He died in Novara on March 29, 2014.
Lazio Career
Season | Apperances Serie A (goals) |
1951-52 | 29 (6) |
1952-53 | 24 (4) |
Total | 53 (10) |
Source
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