View source for Luciano Vassallo

{{Short description|Footballer (1935–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name           = Luciano Vassallo
| image          = Luciano Vassallo 1968.jpg
| caption        = Vassallo in 1968
| full_name      =
| birth_date     = {{birth date|df=yes|1935|8|15}}
| birth_place    = [[Asmara]], [[Italian Eritrea]]
| death_date     = {{death date and age|df=yes|2022|09|16|1935|08|15}}
| death_place    = [[Ostia (Rome)|Ostia]], Italy
| height         =
| position       = [[Midfielder]]
| youthyears1    = 1950–1952
| youthclubs1    = Stella Asmarina
| youthyears2    = 1952–1953
| youthclubs2    = Ferrovieri Asmara
| years1         = 1953–1958
| clubs1         = [[Tele SC|GS Gejeret]]
| years2         = 1958–1960
| clubs2         = [[Asmara Calcio]]
| years3         = 1960–1973
| clubs3         = [[Cotton Factory Club]]
| nationalyears1 = 1960–1971
| nationalteam1  = [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia]]
| nationalcaps1  = 104
| nationalgoals1 = 47
| manageryears1  = 1968–1973
| managerclubs1  = [[Cotton Factory Club]]
| manageryears2  = 1969–1970
| managerclubs2  = [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia]]
| manageryears3  = 1974
| managerclubs3  = [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia]]
| manageryears4  = 1974
| managerclubs4  = [[Saint George S.C.|Saint George]]
| manageryears5  = 1975
| managerclubs5  = [[Air Force FC]]
| manageryears6  = 1976
| managerclubs6  = [[EEPCO F.C.]]
| manageryears7  = 1978
| managerclubs7  = [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia]]
| medaltemplates = 
{{Medal|Country|{{ETH|1897}}}}
{{Medal|Sport|Men's [[Association football|football]]}}
{{Medal|Competition|[[Africa Cup of Nations]]}}
{{Medal|W|[[1962 Africa Cup of Nations|1962 Ethiopia]]|}}
}}

'''Luciano Vassallo''' (15 August 1935 – 16 September 2022),<ref>[https://www.canaledieci.it/2022/09/16/ostia-morto-luciano-vassallo-nazionale-etiope-sfuggito-dittatura/ Ostia, è morto Luciano Vassallo, il nazionale Etiope sfuggito alla dittatura] {{in lang|it}}</ref> also spelled '''Luciano Vassalo''', was a footballer who played as a [[midfielder]]. Born in [[Italian Eritrea]], he played for the [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia national team]] in the 1960s, captaining the winning team at the [[1962 African Cup of Nations]], Ethiopia's only trophy to date.<ref name=WSDec>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[World Soccer (magazine)|World Soccer]]|date=December 2022|page=13|title=Obituaries}}</ref> He was known for his skill, and mostly for his volleys, free kicks and penalties. He played professionally with [[Cotton Factory Club]] along with his half-brother [[Italo Vassallo|Italo]].

==Early life==
Luciano was born in Asmara to Vittorio Vassallo, an officer in the Italian rifle regiment and an Eritrean woman called Mebrak Abraham. Vittorio was transferred to [[Addis Ababa]] in 1937 and they never heard from him again.<ref name="Calcio">{{cite web |last1=Abbate |first1=Boris |title=L’incroyable histoire de Luciano Vassallo, cet Italo-Éthiopien qui gagna la coupe d’Afrique en 1962 |url=https://www.calciomio.fr/lincroyable-histoire-de-luciano-vassallo-cet-italo-ethiopien-qui-gagna-la-coupe-dafrique-en-1962-id-76329 |website=Calcio Mio}}</ref> As mixed-race children they were marginalised at school and treated with contempt due to the [[Italian racial laws]]. This led Luciano to drop out of school during the third grade and study as a mechanic at a railway workshop.<ref name="Vassallo">[http://www.avvenire.it/Sport/Pagine/vassallo-il-re-del-gol-cancellato-dall-etiopia.aspx Interview of Luciano Vassallo about his life (in Italian)]</ref>

Luciano initially began playing football for Stella Asmarina, a team set up by the [[Apostolic Vicariate of Eritrea|Vicarage Apostolic]] exclusively for Italo-Eritrean children.<ref name="Nowhere">{{cite web |last1=Benzoni |first1=Damiano |title=Citizen of Nowhere |url=https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/citizen-nowhere |website=The Blizzard}}</ref> He started his footballing career as a left-back, before being moved to centre back then eventually into midfield where he became known as an advanced playmaker with a powerful shot.

==Club career==
Luciano played for [[Tele SC|GS Gejeret]] and [[Asmara Calcio|GS Asmara]], an Ethiopian team as Eritrea had been annexed in 1950. He signed to play for [[Cotton Factory Club]] of [[Dire Dawa]] in 1960, where, along with his half-brother, he won the Ethiopian First Division in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1965. Luciano credited his experience as a mechanic for getting a job at the associated cotton plantation, which allowed him to receive a salary ten times that of a normal worker.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Felici |first1=Antonio |title=LUCIANO VASSALLO: IL MAGNIFICO SUPERSTITE |url=http://www.antoniofelici.it/2013/01/luciano-vassallo-il-magnifico-superstite.html}}</ref>

==International career==
Luciano played for the [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia national team]] in the qualifying rounds for the [[1962 FIFA World Cup]]. With his half-brother [[Italo Vassallo|Italo]], Luciano was part of the [[1962 African Cup of Nations]] campaign, when Ethiopia won their only trophy to date. Prior to the campaign he was told to change his first and last name in order to sound like ''a real Ethiopian'', which he refused. Luciano, captain of the team, scored two goals in the semifinal against [[Tunisia national football team|Tunisia]] and the equalizer against [[Egypt national football team|Egypt]] in the [[1962 African Cup of Nations Final|final]],{{efn|name=final|[[Mengistu Worku]] was initially credited with scoring twice in the final, but later, one of his goals in the 84th minute was attributed to Luciano Vassallo.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tables/62a.html |title=African Nations Cup 1962 |publisher=RSSSF |date=30 March 2021 }}</ref>}} before winning in extra time, thus he was tied for top scorer in the tournament with three goals along with [[Badawi Abdel Fattah]]. He was handed the trophy by His Highness [[Haile Selassie]], despite an attempt to remove him from the captaincy in order to allow for an Ethiopian player to lift the trophy.<ref name="Calcio"></ref>

In 2006, [[Confederation of African Football|CAF]] began the selection for the best African footballer in the last fifty years. Luciano, along with legendary teammate and friend [[Mengistu Worku]] were selected in the group of the top 50 players, as the only Ethiopians, but were not selected in the final 30, where [[Roger Milla]] was named number one. Many consider Vassallo to be the best Ethiopian footballer in history, after Worku and [[Ydnekatchew Tessema]].

==Managerial career==
Vassallo then went to study as a coach at [[Centro Tecnico Federale di Coverciano|Coverciano]] in [[Florence]], Italy. He went on to coach [[Ethiopia national football team|Ethiopia national team]] on several occasions.
 
During the [[Red Terror (Ethiopia)|Red Terror]], Luciano Vassallo was arrested after he denounced the use of the amphetamine [[Fenethylline|Captagon]] that was being used by the Ethiopian national team. He was stripped of his duties as coach and was set to be taken away by [[Mengistu Haile Mariam]]'s soldiers however one of the colonels recognised his footballing hero and let him go.

He was reinstated as national team manager in 1978 but, two weeks after a historic win over [[East Germany national football team|East Germany]], he fled to [[Djibouti]] then to [[Rome]], where he had sent his family to safety some months earlier.<ref name="Nowhere"></ref>

==After football==

In exile in Italy, Luciano began repairing cars in [[Ostia (Rome)|Ostia]] before opening his own garage and finally obtaining citizenship. Later he founded a school for young footballers called ''Olimpia Ostia''. In 2000, he published a biography titled ''Mamma ecco I soldi'' or ''Mom here's the money''. After retiring, he lived in [[Rome]].

==Career statistics==

===International goals===
{{Incomplete list|date=August 2020}}

:''Scores and results list Ethiopia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Vassallo goal.''

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of international goals scored by Luciano Vassallo
|-
!scope="col"|No.
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Venue
!scope="col"|Opponent
!scope="col"|Score
!scope="col"|Result
!scope="col"|Competition
!scope="col" class="unsortable"|{{Abbr|Ref.|References}}
|-
|align="center"|1
|{{dts|19 March 1961}} 
|[[Haifa]], Israel
|{{fb|ISR}} 
| 
|align="center"|2–3
|[[1962 FIFA World Cup qualification]]
|
|-
|align="center"|2
|rowspan="2"|{{dts|14 January 1962}} 
|rowspan="2"|[[Addis Ababa Stadium|Hailé Sélassié Stadium]], [[Addis Ababa]], Ethiopia
|rowspan="2"|{{fb|TUN}} 
|align="center"|1–2
|rowspan="2" align="center"|4–2 
|rowspan="2"|[[1962 Africa Cup of Nations]]
| 
|-
|align="center"|3
|align="center"|4–2
|
|-
|align="center"|4
|{{dts|21 January 1962}} 
|Hailé Sélassié Stadium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
|{{fb|UAR}} 
|align="center"|2–2
|align="center"|4–2
|1962 Africa Cup of Nations
|{{efn|name=final}}
|-
|align="center"|5
|{{dts|28 November 1963}} 
|[[Accra Sports Stadium]], [[Accra]], Ghana
|{{fb|TUN}} 
|align="center"|
|align="center"|4–2
| [[1963 Africa Cup of Nations]]
|
|-
|align="center"|6
|{{dts|19 November 1965}} 
|[[Stade Chedly Zouiten]], [[Tunis]], Tunisia
|{{fb|SEN}} 
|align="center"|1–1
|align="center"|1–5
| [[1965 Africa Cup of Nations]]
|
|-
|align="center"|7
|{{dts|12 January 1968}} 
|Hailé Sélassié Stadium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
|{{fb|UGA}} 
|align="center"|
|align="center"|2–1
|[[1968 Africa Cup of Nations]]
|
|-
|align="center"|8
|{{dts|16 January 1968}} 
|Hailé Sélassié Stadium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
|{{fb|ALG}} 
|align="center"|3–0
|align="center"|3–1
|1968 Africa Cup of Nations
|
|-
|align="center"|9
|{{dts|19 January 1968}} 
|Hailé Sélassié Stadium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
|{{fb|COD|1966|name=Congo-Kinshasa}}
|align="center"|1–2
|align="center"|2–3
|1968 Africa Cup of Nations
|
|-
|}

==Honors==
===International===
;Ethiopia
*[[Africa Cup of Nations]]: [[1962 African Cup of Nations|1962]]

===Individual===
*Africa Cup of Nations Top Scorer: 1962 (shared with [[Badawi Abdel Fattah]]){{efn|name=final}}

==See also==
* [[Italian Eritreans]]
* [[Italians of Ethiopia]]
* [[Italo Vassallo]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Felici, Antonio. ''Stella d'Africa – La vita straordinaria di Luciano Vassallo, mito del calcio africano anni '60, esule in Italia'' Edizioni Coralli, Roma, 2014 ([http://www.antoniofelici.it/2013/01/luciano-vassallo-il-magnifico-superstite.html Excerpts]) {{ISBN|9788890453694}}
* Vassallo, Luciano. ''Mamma ecco i soldi''. Editore: Coralli. Roma, 2000 {{ISBN|8890453664}}
* {{cite book|author1=Jonathan Wilson|author2=Igor Rabiner|author3=Luke Edwards|author4=Michael Yokhin|author5=David Ashton|title=The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue Twenty Five|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvUnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT161|year=2017|publisher=Blizzard Media Ltd|page=161}}
 
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091212093954/http://www.lucianovassallo.com/en/index.php Luciano Vassallo's official website]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150626135703/http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/statisticsandrecords/players/player=59494/index.html FIFA statistics]

{{Africa Cup of Nations top scorers}}
{{Ethiopia national football team managers}}
{{Eritrea italiana (Colonia Primigenia)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vassallo, Luciano}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Asmara]]
[[Category:Eritrean men's footballers]]
[[Category:Ethiopian men's footballers]]
[[Category:Saint George S.C. players]]
[[Category:Ethiopia men's international footballers]]
[[Category:Eritrean football managers]]
[[Category:Ethiopian football managers]]
[[Category:Ethiopia national football team managers]]
[[Category:Saint George S.C. managers]]
[[Category:Ethiopian people of Eritrean descent]]
[[Category:Ethiopian people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:Eritrean people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:1962 African Cup of Nations players]]
[[Category:1963 African Cup of Nations players]]
[[Category:1965 African Cup of Nations players]]
[[Category:1968 African Cup of Nations players]]
[[Category:1970 African Cup of Nations players]]
[[Category:Africa Cup of Nations–winning players]]
[[Category:Men's association football midfielders]]