Chinaglia, Giorgio

Giorgio Chinaglia, (born January 24, 1947, Carrara, Italy—died April 1, 2012, Naples, Florida, U.S.), Italian football (soccer) player who was one of the sport’s greatest goal scorers and the leading star of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s.

Chinaglia moved to Wales as a schoolboy, and in 1964–65 he played for Swansea in the Welsh league. After having returned to Italy in 1966 to fulfill his military service, he was a member (1969–76) of Rome’s SS Lazio. He helped the team to its first Serie A championship in the 1973–74 season while leading the league in goals scored. (Overall he scored 98 goals in 209 matches.)

In 1976 Chinaglia joined the New York Cosmos of the NASL, where he gained national attention. By 1980 the six-foot one-inch (1.85-metre) striker had set almost every scoring record in the NASL. In 1982 he clinched the Cosmos’ fourth title in six years when he scored the only goal of the NASL Soccer Bowl against the Seattle Sounders. He retired from the Cosmos after the 1983 season, having scored more NASL goals than any other player in the league’s history—193 in 213 regular-season games and 50 in the play-offs. He later worked as a soccer television analyst and radio host. Chinaglia briefly (1983–85) served as part owner and president of Lazio. In 2006 he was accused of having tried to influence the price of Lazio shares before a proposed sale of the club and was charged with extortion and insider trading. Chinaglia denied the charges, and no further action was taken because he lived in the United States, where he had become a citizen in 1979. Chinaglia was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000.