Alfonso Ricciardi was born in Avellino, on October 21, 1913.
His first club was his hometown Avellino, in those days called Avellinese.
In 1933 he joined Campobasso in Seconda Divisione (4th tier). The Lupi finished first and were promoted to Prima Divisione (3rd tier) after a playoff. Ricciardi played 18 league games.
In 1934 he moved to Salernitana where he stayed for four seasons. The Granata were in Prima Divisione and finished 2nd thus joining Serie C where they finished 6th, 2nd and 1st (promoted to Serie B). Ricciardi played 94 league games.
In 1938 he signed for Bari in Serie A and stayed three seasons.
In his first the manager was Hungarian József Ging and Bari finished 11th. Ricciardi played 11 league games and 1 in Coppa Italia.
In the second the managers were three: Hungarian András Kuttik (1-10), Raffaele Costantino (11-21) and finally future Lazio manager Luigi Ferrero (22-30) and the Galletti again finished 11th and reached the Coppa Italia semi-finals (Genova 0-2). Ricciardi played more regularly making 29 league appearances.
In his final year, under Ferrero the Biancorossi were relegated finishing 16th and Ricciardi again played 29 league games plus 3 in Coppa Italia. In his three seasons one of his teammates was legendary future Lazio manager Tommaso Maestrelli.
In 1941 he joined Milano (Italianised name for Milan at the time). He stayed two seasons.
In the first he made no appearances under Mario Magnozzi and the Rossoneri finished 10th and were losing finalists in the Coppa Italia (Juventus 2-5 on aggregate). The main keeper was Giovanni Rossetti.
The following season, still under Magnozzi, Milan finished 6th and Ricciardi played 3 league games. In his days with the Rossoneri his teammates included former Lazio Paolo Todeschini (1948-49 as player and 1961-62 as manager).
During the war years in 1943-44 he played for Seregno (Monza) where he also had his first experience as coach in the Lombard mixed Serie C- Prima Divisione league in which the Azzurri finished 3rd.
After the war he played one last season for Torrese (Torre Annunziata- Napoli) modern day Savoia. He only played 2 league games but the Oplontini were promoted to Serie B despite finishing 4th. This was to reward the club for having kept the club going during the war years.
Ricciardi then retired at 32 and concentrated on coaching.
He started in his hometown of Avellino. He stayed for two seasons between 1947 and 1949. The Irpini were in the Lega Interregionale of Serie C and finished 3rd and 1st but were relegated due to disciplinary offenses.
In 1949-50 he spent a season at Campobasso again. The Rossoblu were in the Lega Interregionale Sud of Promozione (4th tier) and finished 2nd.
In 1950 he joined Livorno in Serie B. The Amaranto finished 3rd. The following season he stayed on but after 16 games was replaced by Englishman Edmund Crawford. The "Triglie" were eventually relegated.
After stepping down as head coach at Livorno he continued to work for them first as sporting director and then as administrative director.
In 1956 he joined Lazio as a director and became general secretary of the club. In 1962 he also had a brief spell as technical director with Bob Lovati on the bench. They took over from Paolo Todeschini after 21 games but were then replaced by Carlo Facchini after six games (W1, D2, L3). Lazio eventually finished 4th but not without controversy as in a crucial game against Napoli a perfectly good goal was absurdly disallowed and the Partenopei then finished one point ahead of Lazio and won promotion.
Ricciardi was a goalkeeper. He played 72 games in Serie A and was on Milan's books for two years. He won two promotions: Campobasso to the third tier and Salernitana to Serie B. It was at Bari however where he had most satisfactions.
As a manager he won another promotion to Serie B with Avellino but it was then revoked through no fault of his own.
At Lazio he will be remembered mainly as a director. The idea to make him manager was an idea of president Massimo Giovannini and at the time even Ricciardi himself expressed doubts about the decision as he did not have vast coaching experience and had been working in other roles for several years.
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