|
|
Attilio Fresia
Born in Turin on 5/3/1891.
Attilio Fresia started his career with clubs in Turin before moving to Andrea Doria. In 1913 he was transferred to Genoa for 400 lire and won his only Italian cap in a 1-0 win against Belgium on 1/5/1913. He played against Reading twice on the club's Italian tour in May 1913, scoring two goals for Genoa in the opening game, and impressed sufficiently that by June 1913 we were trying to sign him. He played at inside-right, although as Italian football was quite different from English football at this time, I suspect that just means he was a right-footed forward player.
There had never been an Italian player in England before, and the Italian football federation had to sanction his transfer. Whilst they deliberated, Fresia was in limbo and to fill the gap he was acting as trainer for a junior club and spending time with former Reading player Willy Garbutt, the manager of Genoa, to keep fit. After the initial delay, he was expected in England by mid-November 1913 but a key federation meeting was delayed.
The town of Reading was naturally excited by this unusual signing, and the newspapers even reported the arrival of his photograph in Reading on 27/11/1913! Two days later, the Italian federation held their meeting to agree his move and in December he arrived in England. The director E H Clacy had met him at Victoria Station, and they had then caught the train from Paddington to Reading. The local papers reported his travel itinerary in advance as if people might have wanted to see him arrive, but if there were crowds waiting at Reading station that did not get reported. In fact, as soon as he reached the town he was taken off to a meeting of the club directors that happened to be taking place that evening.
Communication had been expected to be a problem. It was known that Fresia spoke good French, as did some of the Reading directors, and that was how the club expected to talk to him. However, when he did arrive, it was discovered that he did have some English, and said, "First month, very difficult, English language. Second month, good."
He made his Reading debut a few days later for the reserve team against Croydon Common in the South-Eastern League and then played for the reserves again a week later. Inbetween he had visited London - "unaccompanied" as the newspapers reported!
I will add more details about his first few games at a later date, but suffice to say his prediction of "good" turned out to be over-optimistic. By February of 1914, a local journalist wrote that "Fresia is just useful on hard ground, and almost useless on soft going." It appears that he failed to adapt to the conditions, and possibly also to different rule interpretations. He therefore returned to Italy to rejoin Andrea Doria and stayed there until 1915. The Italian football championship was suspended from 1916 to 1919 due to World War 1 so Fresia's next spell was at Livorno for the 1919/20 season. He was player-manager of Modena in 1922/23, but died in Modena on 14th April 1923.
Vittorio Pozzo, Italy's World Cup-winning manager of 1934 and 1938 and manager of the 1936 Olympic gold medallists says in his memoirs: "...in the middle of a match between fellow students in Turin, Attilio Fresia appeared and, weaving past every one of the 22 players, stole the ball!" He was then to become, in Pozzo's opinion, "one of the most skilful players in Italian football."
Other players - surnames beginning with
A . B . C . D . E . F . G . H . I . J . K . L . M . N . O . P . Q . R . S . T . U . V . W . X . Y . Z
Home . Where Are They Now? Index
News . First Team . Opposition . Reserves . Academy . Columns . Kingsley . MadStad . Interactive . Links . Site Map