http://nycosmos.com/news/new-york-cosmos-legend-giorgio-chinaglia-passes-away-1 Part of my youth now gone...
When I was listening to the RAI (Italian) TV today, I couldn't believe my ears. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Spartan Stadium in San Jose when I was a kid and my uncles would all speak Italian with him. You can say whatever you want about the guy but there was no denying he was truly the best strikers ever to step foot this side of the pond. The NASL possessed the top goal scorers of the modern soccer ear of the 70' & early 80's soccer in Best, Muller, Topmuller, Francis , Cubillas and Pele and a host of others but Giorgio compared to them made goal scoring look simple. I'm more than sure he could have easily played and scored a lot of goals as well in today's MLS without any problems! RIP & Addio Giorgio!
Giorgio was definitely a big part of my soccer education. While I played the game back in the '70's, it was with little knowledge of what high level soccer looked like. Finally was able to watch the Cosmos and at first, it was popular among my friends to not think much of Chinaglia as all he did was score from close range. It didn't take long for me to move from that naive view of what he did to a great appreciation of how rare it is to find someone like Giorgio who can put themselves in the right place, at the right time and consistently put the ball in the back of the net with their head, feet, or whatever else comes in handy. I also listened to him last week on the Sirius radio show with Charlie and was shocked to hear he passed away. RIP, Giorgio.
You know, its really weird but yesterday when i had ESPN on, and I saw the little teaser on the side of the screen that said "Passing of a Soccer Legend", I knew it was Giorgio. I dont know how or why. The last time I heard him on the radio he said he was feeling alot better after his heart procedure. Really sad
I knew him pretty well when he played on the Cosmos. He was a great guy and very funny. He had a nose for goals. He didn't like Pele he was always the leading scorer for the Cosmos. When Pele and he played together. Yet Pele got most of the press. He didn't like that after he was the scorer. He told Pele that too . He also knew the game like no other. I never realized he was a lot younger then me. I have no sceen him in years. He will be missed. He was very good friends of Joe Manfredi who had a lot of car dealerships. They were big advertisers for the Cosmos games on channel 9 in NY back then..He and his son still do and sponser a lot of teams He also owned a team in the A league the Staten Island Vipers and he was a life long Brooklyn italian.
Here is a great tribute for Giorgio: http://c3414030.r30.cf0.rackcdn.com/KG-04-02-12.mp3 Too bad I was too young and lived in a different city, I wish that I could of seen him play.
look him up on youtube there is a lot on him there. Check out the one when he had 50 goals with the Cosmos in one season they show them all. Man he had a live foot the video is pretty clear as well.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/featur...ew-york-cosmos-star-giorgio-chinaglia?cc=5901 "I am Chinaglia. If I shoot from a place, it's because Chinaglia can score from there"
Chinaglia at that point was 29-30 , in his prime and at the top of his game while Pele was at an age of 36-37 and way beyond his prime and/or expiration date. Not saying he wasn't good for the NASL at that time but Chinaglia IMHO , was among the world's top scorers. For the NASL, anyway, can't think of anyone else better. Maybe Zungul when he went back to outdoors and played for the Quakes but that's about it.... BTW, any word from Pele's NY office on Chinaglia's passing? Just curious...
Just saw the start of the Lazio -Napoli match where they had a minute of silence for Chinaglia and where his son placed Giorgio's #9 jersey on the Lazio bench. Lazio's players are playing with black armbands in honor of Giorgio......
Good tribute video. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odTntFhv2ug"]GIORGIO CHINAGLIA * ULTRAS DEL '74 - YouTube[/ame]