Lazio rise to the occasion
The Biancocelesti dominate Milan and win thanks to Sanero and a Lamon brace
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The season so far
The Serie A was still in an experimental phase and the 22 teams of the National Division (a type of Serie A) were divided into two groups of 11. The top four would continue to the national final group, the bottom three should have been relegated to the First Division, but in the end only who came last actually went down as the Federation decided to have a transitional year and divide the 32 teams into two divisions for the 1928-29 championship so that for the season after there would be Serie A and Serie B.
Lazio in 1926-27 had been promoted to the National Division and played in the A Group. In 1927 a bizarre decision by the fascist party had decided that Rome should have a single team. Football was becoming increasingly popular, but Rome could not compete with the financial strength of the teams from Northern Italy so something had to be done. The fascist party put Italo Foschi in charge of the project.
The birth of AS Roma
On August 2, 1926 in Viareggio a trio of three “wise men” (Paolo Graziani, Italo Foschi and Giovanni Mauro) redesigned Italian football with the Viareggio Charter. In this document professionalism was introduced to Italian soccer together with the transfer market and the total ban on signing foreign players. Furthermore, a first National Division was introduced with 20 teams, 16 from the North of Italy, Internaples and Alba (who had reached the final stage of the Italian championship), Fortitudo (Foschi was coincidently president of the Rome-based team) and finally the winner of a playoff between the 8 clubs that had been relegated the year before (Alessandria).
It was important for the fascist party that the Roman teams should be competitive. As a consequence, a series of mergers began to make the teams stronger. Alba, founded in 1907, merged with Audace, founded in 1901, and Fortitudo, 1908, with Pro Roma, 1911. Results however were pretty dismal. Alba arrived second from last in their 1926-27 National Division group and Fortitudo last.
A further step was needed, one single team for Rome that could compete with the powers of the north. Foschi ordered that Fortitudo, Alba and Lazio should merge into a new club that would be called Associazione Sportiva Roma and bear the colours of the city, red and yellow. The players would come from the first two teams while Lazio would supply the stadium (Campo della Rondinella).
President Olindo Bitetti understood what the real plan was. Lazio would disappear. Bitetti asked General Giorgio Vaccaro, vice president and prominent member of the fascist party, for a hand. “Lazio has been a Moral Body by Royal Decree since 1921 and has a history, it cannot disappear. If we need to create a single club there is no problem, but it has to be called Lazio, the colours have to be white and light blue and the stadium must be that of the Rondinella”. This was obviously not going to be possible, but General Vaccaro was able to avoid Lazio being included in the new club. Roman, founded in 1901, took Lazio’s place.
The good thing was that Foschi was only interested in the Stadium. Alba too had no intention of joining the new club but they had the best team, so it was impossible for them to refuse.
In justifying the refusal, General Giorgio Vaccaro made the famous proclamation: “Lazio is different. Lazio does not come from, Lazio is. Lazio was born first and the fans came later. For the others there were already fans and a club was created for them to support”.
It took a long while for Roma to be competitive but since they had the best players in town, they were a lot stronger than Lazio and the merging of three groups of fans meant that the Lazio supporters were less. Vincenzo Cerracchio in his book “Controstoria della Lazio” said that it was as if all the teams of London merged into one with the exception of Fulham, London’s oldest professional football club. It is a miracle Lazio still exists.
The consequence of the refusal meant that there was little time to create a good team. The squad was strong in some areas and weak in others. There was a new manager, Austrian Franz Sedlaceck, and many new players: defenders Renato Bottacini (Bologna) and Dino Canestri (Prato), midfielders Luigi Bodrato (Sampierdarenese), Piero Cappa (Prato), Pio Maneschi (Alba Roma), Paolo Paganini (Spal) and forwards Carlo Cevenini V (Milan), Camillo Fenilli (Juventus), Gino Lamon (Treviso) and Renato Sanero (Juventus, on loan).
So far Lazio were not doing very well. They had lost the first four games without scoring, but in the last two they managed to win against Brescia and draw in Naples. Today was an important and difficult match against Milan.
The match: Sunday, November 20, 1927, Stadio Nazionale, Rome
Lazio were finally without any injured players while Milan were missing Pietro Pastore.
In the first half there was a very strong wind blowing behind the Biancocelesti, but while Ezio Sclavi remained completely inactive, the Milan goal remained miraculously untouched as Dario Compiani made at least three fantastic saves and Gino Lamon in the 15th minute wasted an open goal chance.
In the second half, however, despite the unfavourable wind, Lazio accentuated their superiority and the goals finally arrived. In the 48th minute Carlo Cevennini V crossed low into the box and this time Lamon scored. The Biancocelesti took control of the game and Milan disappeared. After a handball in the Milan box, ignored by the referee, Renato Sanero scored in the 80th minute and Lamon got his brace two minutes later. The Milan attack finally woke up with 40 seconds left of the match and reduced the deficit with Mariano Tansini.
A very prestigious win for Lazio.
Who played for Lazio
Sclavi, Canestri, Bottacini, Paganini, Pardini, Berti II, Cevenini V, Bodrato, Sanero, Lamon, Fenili
Manager: Sedlacek
Who played for Milan
Compiani, Schenoni, Colombo, Mazzi, Pomi, Marchi, Torriani, Santagostino, Ostromann II, Aigotti, Tansini
Manager: Burgess
Referee: Medica
Goals: 48’ Lamon, 80’ Sanero, 82’ Lamon, 90’ Tansini
What happened next
The Biancocelesti came second last in their group with just 4 wins, 3 draws and 13 defeats. That should have meant relegation but due to a decision from the Federation to postpone the creation of a single league to 1929, the six teams that were in the bottom of the two tables (Napoli, Lazio, Reggiana, Livorno, La Dominanate and Verona) were all allowed to play the next season in the top tier.
The player with most appearances had been Luigi Bodrato (20) whilst top scorer was Renato Sanero with 4 goals.
Lazio went on to play the Coppa Coni. The Coppa Coni was a tournament that took place in 1926-27 and 1927-28 between the 14 teams that did not make it to the final round for the scudetto. The Biancocelesti ended third in the group, missing out on the final by just one point.
Let's talk about Renato Sanero
Renato Sanero was born in Turin on October 24, 1907.
He started playing football in the youth teams of Juventus and in 1927 he was sent to Rome to play for Lazio on loan. He did rather well making 22 appearances with six goals. He went back to Turin and in 1928-29 made 14 league appearances with 11 goals. However, in 1929-30 he played just four games and, in the summer of 1930, he was sold to Atalanta.
He stayed for five years, all in Serie B, with 129 appearances and 42 goals. He is still one of the leading goal scorers in the history of the Bergamaschi.
He ended his career with Padova with two years in Serie C and two in Serie B.
He was a solid and technical centre forward and a point of reference for Lazio in 1927-28.
He died on May 17, 1987, in Padova.
Lazio career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | National Division | Coppa Coni |
1927-28 | 22 (6) | 13 (4) | 9 (2) |
Sources
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