Luigi Ziroli was born in Rome on September 27, 1903.
He started playing as a youngster with Roman club Juventus Audax but in 1924, at 21, he joined S.S Alba.
In 1924-25 the Romans won the Lazio regional group, the Lega Sud semi-finals and then the Sud final beating Anconitana. They thus qualified for the national final but lost to Bologna 0-6 on aggregate.
In 1925-26 the Albini again qualified for the national final but this time lost to Juventus 1-12 on aggregate.
In 1926 SS. Alba merged with another Roman club, Audace Roma, and became Unione Sportiva Alba Audace.
In 1926-27 Alba Audace finished 9th in the Divisione Nazionale and were relegated. At the end of the season however, Alba merged with Fortitudo Pro Roma and Roman to form the new A.S Roma. This was a decision promoted by the fascist party for Rome to have one single strong club to contrast the powerful and seemingly unbeatable northern clubs. Fortunately, Lazio managed to avoid the merger and remained fiercely independent and proud.
In his three seasons with Alba/Audace, Ziroli played 49 league games and scored 19 goals.
In 1927-28 he found himself playing for the newly formed Giallorossi. Roma finished 8th in the B group of the Divisione Nazionale so did not qualify for the title group. They then won the CONI Cup (for the teams excluded from the title race). Ziroli played 19 league games with 3 goals (Livorno, La Dominante x2) and 7 games in the CONI Cup.
In 1928 he left the capital and joined Venezia. The Venetians were in the Divisione Nazionale but finished 11th and were relegated, under Hungarian manager Antal Mally. Ziroli played 18 league games and scored 10 goals.
In 1929 he returned to Rome and joined Lazio. It was the season of the first ever single national Serie A. The manager was first Ferenc Molnár then Pietro Piselli and then Molnár again and Lazio finished 15th. Ziroli played 31 league games and was top scorer with 11 goals (Cremonese x3, Padova x2, Bologna, Genova, Alessandria, Ambrosiana-Inter, Modena, Torino).
In 1930-31 Lazio did better and finished 8th. They had three different managers, Ferenc Molnár, Cesare Migliorini and finally Amílcar. The highlights were beating Juventus 2-1 and Inter 1-0 at home and Milan 1-0 away while both derbies were draws. Ziroli played 28 league games with 2 goals (Ambrosiana-Inter, Triestina).
Ziroli then left Rome and joined Palermo where he stayed nine seasons. The Rosanero immediately won promotion to Serie A. They then finished 13th, 12th, 7th, 15th (relegated), 7th, 7th, 7th and 14th. Ziroli played 194 league games with 9 goals. His lower goal scoring rate was due to the fact that in Sicily he played mainly as full-back. His managers included, future Lazio, Tony Cargnelli plus Hungarians Gyula Feldmann, Karoly Csapkay, Gyula Lelovics and Árpád Hajós.
Ziroli then spent one last season, in 1940-41, with Mater, a local Roman club who were in Serie C (in 41-42 they even got promoted to B). He then retired at 37.
Ziroli started as a left winger but then moved to full-back at Palermo.
At Lazio he stayed two seasons. He was nicknamed "Ziroletto" and was a popular player. He was very prolific in his first season with 11 goals. He played a total of 59 games for Lazio with 13 goals.
Luigi Ziroli died in Rome on July 6, 1968.
Lazio career
Season | Serie A Appearances | Serie A Goals |
1929-30 | 31 | 11 |
1930-31 | 28 | 2 |
Total | 59 | 13 |
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