An Italian in Roots Hall: Eddie Firmani's Footballing Life

Eddie Firmani in his pomp

In between spells with Charlton Athletic striker Eddie Firmani turned out 62 times for the Shrimpers over two years, scoring 28 times.

I caught him at the end of his time at Roots Hall with the 66 World Cup taking place in England, and now 44 years later the 2010 competition is to take place in the country of his birth, though he'll always be an Italian to the Blues faithful of the time, and actually won 3 caps for the Azzurri in the fifties.

Eddie eventually returned to the Addicks, becoming their manager before coaching some of the world's top players in the States, including Pele! 

Upright and classy, sadly I can't remember if I saw him score, but he's still going strong and in the following article with the Guardian he talks about his life in football, including being asked for advice by present England manager Fabio Capello!

Eddie's had quite a life.

For the full article by Nick Harris, go here:
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/19/the-footballing-life-eddie-firmani

The Firmani Files



Eddie, now 76, relaxes back in Cape Town, where England take on Slovenia

Personal information
Full name	Edwin Ronald Firmani
Date of birth	August 7, 1933 (1933-08-07) (age 76)
Place of birth	Cape Town, South Africa
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
1949-1950	Clyde F.C. (Cape Town)
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1950-1955 1955-1958 1958-1961 1961-1963 1963-1965 1965-1967 1967-1968	Charlton Athletic Sampdoria Internazionale Genoa Charlton Athletic Southend United Charlton Athletic	112 (51) 063 (52) 082 (48) 062 (25) 055 (32) 055 (24) 010 0(6)
National team
1956-1958	Italy	003 0(2)
Teams managed
1967-1970 1975-1977 1977-1979 1980 1981-1982 1984 1993 1996	Charlton Athletic Tampa Bay Rowdies New York Cosmos Philadelphia Fury Montreal Manic New York Cosmos Montreal Impact New York/New Jersey MetroStars
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

(Player information supplied by Wikipedia, for the full article go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Firmani)