The Italian passion for football developed early, but it was only after a meeting in Viareggio in 1926 that Italy began its rise to become one of the leading teams in the world, winning the World Cup in 1934 and 1938. The coach who led the azzurri to those triumphs, Vittorio Pozzo, also inspired a team of students to win the football gold at the 1936 Olympic Games. But Italy wouldn’t rise alone. Two of the great coaches of the first two decades of Serie A were Hungarian – and Jewish. Árpád Weiss won the league with Inter and Bologna and was a huge influence on Pozzo; he died at Auschwitz. Ernő Erbstein escaped a fascist labour camp but died at Superga in the air crash that wiped out the great Torino side he had built.
Jonathan Wilson is a British football journalist and historian. He is a columnist for World Soccer, founder and editor of The Blizzard magazine and the founder and co-host of the football podcasts Libero and It Was What It Was. Four times voted football writer of the year,
two of his books have been named football book of the year in Britain and he has also won the Premio Antonio Ghirelli in Italy.
A drinks reception will follow the talk
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