Monday saw the passing of a bona fide Italian great. Luigi, Gigi, Riva, the nation’s record goal-scorer, was an iconic figure not only for Italy but also for his beloved Cagliari, and at his peak, one of the world’s very best.
It is a testament to Riva’s record that no one has been able to surpass it in the five decades since he last wore the famous Azzurri shirt. Not Baggio, not Rossi, not Del Piero, not Vialli, and not Vieri; no one has beaten Riva’s 35 for the national team, and, as it stands, no member of the current side looks like getting close either.
After the war, Italian football had been languishing when Riva and his generation came along, and he, along with teammates Gianni Rivera, Sandro Mazzola, and Armando Picchi, among others, would restore Italy to its rightful place. The immediate post-war era was a troubled and tragic era, with the deaths of the great Valentino Mazzola and il Grande Torino at Superga. Italy was fairly unsuccessful during the 1950s, but Riva’s generation would reignite the memories of the 1930s of Mazzola, Piola, Monti, and Combi by winning Italy’s first major trophy in 30 years with the 1968 European Championships.
Despite being born in the far north of the country, on the shores of beautiful Lake Maggiore, it was on Sardinia that Riva would be most revered. Save for his first season at Legnano, Riva would spend his entire career with Cagliari, scoring 164 goals in 315 games in the process. He was not only able to take this relatively small provincial club to promotion to Serie A, but he was vital in assembling a team that would eventually produce a legendary underdog story: the 1969/70 Serie A title, the first and thus far only in the club’s history. Extraordinarily, this was the very first time a team south of Rome had ever won the title. While he would never win a Ballon d’Or, it is proof of the standard of his performances during this period of time that he would come in second in 1969 and third in 1970, only behind Rivera, Gerd Müller, and Bobby Moore.
The great Gianni Brera nicknamed Riva ‘il Rombo di Tuono’, the rumble of thunder, and I find this a very evocative way to describe a player of such effortless power and grace. He will be sorely missed.
“File:Stadio Sant’Elia -Cagliari -Italy-23Oct2008.jpg” by Cristiano Cani is licensed under CC BY 2.0.