Anton Cargnelli was born in Vienna, on 1 February, 1889. His father was Italian and his mother Austrian.
He had a career as a player: Vienna Cricketer, Germany Schwechat and Wiener AF and then Schwechat again. He won the Austrian league with Wiener in 1914. He also won one cap for Austria, in a 1-1 draw against Hungary. It is as a coach however that he is better known.
In 1925-26 he coached VfB Mühlburg, from Karlsruhe in Germany while in 1926-27 he was in charge of Timişoara, in Romania.
In 1927 he arrived in Italy at Torino. He immediately won the Scudetto with "Toro". The Granata won 22 (including Lazio 3-0 and 2-0, Reggiana 14-0 and Brescia 11-0) drew 5 and lost 7. Top scorer was Julio Libonatti with 35.
The following season Torino won the National A group but lost the Scudetto Final to Bologna in the third decisive game 0-1 (first two 1-3 and 1-0).
In 1930 Cargnelli moved to Sicily and joined Palermo in Serie B. The Rosanero finished 3rd (W18, D8, L8) and missed out on promotion.
The following season he stayed on but was replaced by Hungarian Feldmann after 6 games.
In 1932 he joined Foggia in Serie C and got the "Satanelli" promoted to Serie B.
In 1933-34 he moved slightly down the coast to Bari in Serie B. The "Galletti" went extremely close to promotion, losing a playoff 0-1 to Sampierdarenese.
In 1935 he returned to Torino in Serie A and narrowly avoided relegation. The following season was better with a 3rd place and Torino won the Coppa Italia beating Alessandria 5-1 in Genoa.
In 1936 he went back to Bari in Serie A for two seasons. He kept the Biancorossi up both seasons.
In 1938 Cargnelli joined Ambrosiana -Inter. In 1939 the Nerazzurri won the Coppa Italia (Novara 2-1) and in 1940 the Scudetto.
In 1940 he returned to Torino for the third time. In his first season Toro came 7th and reached the Coppa Italia semi-final (Roma 0-1 in replay) while in his second he was replaced in March by Andreas Kutik and the Torinesi finished 2nd.
In 1942-43 he joined Liguria but came bottom and then the Second World War interrupted all sporting activities.
After the war Cargnelli joined Lazio for the 1946-47 season. The squad included Uber Gradella, Francesco Antonazzi, Romolo Alzani, Enrique Flamini, Salvador Gualtieri (captain), Costantino De Andreis, Luciano Ramella, Hengelbert Koenig and Aldo Puccinelli. The Biancocelesti finished 10th, after 12 wins, 12 draws and 14 defeats. Top scorers were Puccinelli with 13 and Koenig with 12.
In 1947-48 he stayed at Lazio. In February however he was replaced by Orlando Tognotti. In his 21 games Cargnelli won 5 (including Inter) drew 7 (including Juventus away) and lost 9 (including a derby 0-1). Lazio ended up 10th again.
In April 1948 he took over at Lucchese in Serie A. He lost the first game but then managed to help "Le Pantere" avoid relegation with 4 wins (including Lazio 2-1, Milan 2-1 away), 4 draws (including Roma 2-2) and 4 defeats.
In the summer of 1948 he joined Bologna in Serie A. His first season was good with a 6th place, despite losing 2-8 to Lazio. The Rossoblu won 12, drew 17 and lost 9. Top scorer was a certain Mike from Hungary with 21 league goals.
The following season Cargnelli stayed but was first joined by Technical Director Pietro Genovesi and then replaced by Englishman Edward Crawford after 15 games. In this period the "Felsinei" had only won 2 games, drawn 5 (including Lazio 0-0) and lost 8.
His last job was with Alessandria in Serie C in the 1950-51 season. The "Orso Grigio" however missed out on promotion, finishing 4th.
Cargnelli won a league title in Austria as a player and then as a manager 2 won Scudetti, 2 Italian Cups and a promotion to Serie B with Foggia. A coach to be remembered. He was a very strict manager and extremely competent. His other big passion was cycling.
At Lazio he spent one and a half seasons. He was manager for a total of 79 matches with 23 wins, 24 draws and 32 defeats.
Tony Cargnelli died of kidney failure in Albenga (Savona), on 27 June, 1974 at 85.
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