Virginio Rosetta

Virginio "Viri" Rosetta (; 25 February 1902 – 29 March 1975) was an Italian footballer who played as a defender. Methodist full-back, initially a striker, he stood out in his ability to read the game: this made him a skilled defensive playmaker, able to restart the offensive manouvre of his team – anticipating the future tasks of the libero, also rising as the first defender capable of imposing himself in the role, in the history of Italian football, purely for its technical qualities compared to its athletic ones. Flanked on the field first by Luigi Allemandi (1925-1928) and then by Umberto Caligaris (1928-1935), with whom he excelled in the role, in the economy of team play he was very helpful to his teammates in intervention times. Finally, he boasted considerable shooting power. Commonly regarded as one of the greatest right-backs of his generation.

Club career
He grew up in his native Vercelli, where he began to kick a ball at the age of five, founding at the age of ten a football club of peers, called Sezione Propaganda, with which he had the opportunity to face the Sports team, in which Umberto Caligaris, future teammate at Juventus and in the national team, played. He later moved to Milan to study, and played in the ranks of the Bambini Nerazzurri club. A short time later he returned to his hometown and played in the ranks of the 20th Autoparco, where he was noticed by the managers of Pro Vercelli, who added him to the squad. He made his debut with the Vercelli club at the age of seventeen, playing as a striker, in the first championship after the Great War, in 1919-1920. With the Piedmontese team he played a good season 1922-1923 in the First Division with 25 appearances and 7 goals. Later the coach decided to deploy him as a full-back, making him debut in the new role in the league match against Juventus. It won its first Italian title in 1920-1921 and repeated it in 1921-1922, in the C.C.I. championship. 

In 1923 Rosetta resigned from Pro Vercelli to join Juventus, where he was able to enjoy a salary he did not receive when he played at Pro. Vercelli president Luigi Bozino, however, opposed the player's transfer and the Lega Nord, led by lawyer Ulisse Baruffini of Milan, awarded the opponents the victory in three matches played by the Turinese with Rosetta on the field. Baruffini's decision unleashed the wrath of the management of the Juventus club and a "tug-of-war" between the League and the FIGC known as the Rosetta Case, which ended with the commissioning of the Federation and the confirmation of the sanction to Juventus. After months of meetings and general councils, Pro Vercelli accepted Rosetta's farewell against a monetary fee agreed with Edoardo Agnelli's club and the matter was closed.

Subsequently, Rosetta ran into the meshes of sports justice again, this time on the occasion of the Allemandi Case, a scandal that led to the revocation of the 1926-1927 Scudetto to Torino. In that circumstance, the federal president Leandro Arpinati immediately acquitted Rosetta of all charges; Despite this, the suspicions – never proven – about the alleged involvement in the affair continued to accompany him in the following decades.

In the Juventus jersey Rosetta won his third Scudetto in 1926, a championship in which, excelling in a defensive partnership with Luigi Allemandi and goalkeeper Gianpiero Combi, he set the unbeaten record in Italian football (934') – then surpassed only ninety years later by another Juventus rearguard, that of Buffon-Barzagli-Bonucci-Chiellini (974') –; He was later among the protagonists of the team that dominated the national scene for the first half of the 1930s with five consecutive titles.

He retired at the age of thirty-four, in 1936, after thirteen years as a starter in Turin, for a total of 338 games with 15 goals, winning eight Italian championships before and after the single round.

International career
He made his debut in the blue jersey on 31 August 1920, at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, against Norway. The first period in the national team he teamed up with Renzo De Vecchi, then he was replaced for a period by Umberto Caligaris in the role of right-back.

He played a total of 52 matches for the national team, the last of which was against the United States in the 1934 World Cup, won by hosts Italy. On 2 December 1933, on the eve of his fiftieth appearance for the Azzurri, he was appointed Knight of the Crown of Italy. He was then replaced in the role of right-back by the Bolognese Eraldo Monzeglio.

After retirement
Rosetta retired from professional football in 1936. He died in Turin in 1975.

Honours
Player

Club
Pro Vercelli
Serie A: 1920–21, 1921–22

Juventus
Serie A: 1925–26, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35

International
Italy
FIFA World Cup: 1934
Central European International Cup: 1927–30, 1933–35; Runner-up: 1931–32
Summer Olympics: Bronze Medal 1928

Coach
Juventus
Coppa Italia: 1937–38

Palermo
Serie B: 1947–48

References

Category:1902 births
Category:1975 deaths
Category:Italian footballers
Category:Italy men's international footballers
Category:Association football defenders
Category:Serie A players
Category:Juventus FC players
Category:FC Pro Vercelli 1892 players
Category:1934 FIFA World Cup players
Category:FIFA World Cup–winning players
Category:Olympic footballers for Italy
Category:Olympic bronze medalists for Italy
Category:Footballers at the 1920 Summer Olympics
Category:Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Category:Footballers at the 1928 Summer Olympics
Category:Italian football managers
Category:Juventus FC managers
Category:Lucchese 1905 managers
Category:Palermo FC managers
Category:Footballers from Vercelli
Category:Olympic medalists in football
Category:Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics
Category:20th-century Italian sportsmen