Pietro Rava

Pietro Rava

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Personal information
Full name	Pietro Rava
Date of birth	(1916-01-21)21 January 1916
Place of birth	Cassine, Alessandria, Italy
Date of death
Place of death	Turin, Italy
Height
Position(s)	Left-back
Youth career
	Juventus
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1935–1943	Juventus	180	(3)
1944	Juventus	14	(1)
1944–1946	U.S. Alessandria	50	(8)
1946–1947	Juventus	38	(5)
1947–1950	Novara	73	(3)
International career
1935–1946	Italy	30	(0)
Managerial career
1952–1954	Padova
1956	Sampdoria
1957	Palermo
1961–1963	U.S. Alessandria
Medal record Representing Italy Football (soccer) FIFA World Cup France 1938 Team Competition Men's Football 1936 Berlin Team Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Pietro Rava (21 January 1916 – 5 November 2006) was an Italian football defender and coach, who played as a full-back. He won the 1936 Summer Olympics and the 1938 FIFA World Cup with the Italian national team.

Career

Club

Rava, born in Cassine, Province of Alessandria, played for the clubs U.S. Alessandria (1928–35, 1946–47), Juventus F.C. (1935–46 and 1947–50) and Novara Calcio (1950–51). He won two Italian Cups in the 1937-38 and 1941-42 seasons, and two scudettos in the 1934-35 and 1949-50 seasons. He was Juventus's captain from 1947 to 1950. In total, he played in 352 Serie A matches (including 303 for Juventus), scoring 15 goals.

International

For the Italian national team, he appeared in 30 international matches between 1936 to 1946, losing only one game, and becoming the Italy captain in 1940. He won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and won the 1938 FIFA World Cup. He was selected to the "Best XI" of the 1938 World Cup. Along with Alfredo Foni, Sergio Bertoni, and Ugo Locatelli, Rava is one of only four Italian players ever to win both the Olympic tournament and the World Cup.

After retirement

As a coach, he managed the clubs Sampdoria, Palermo, Padova, Monza, Alessandria, Novara, Carrarese, and A.C. Cuneo.

On 5 November 2006, Rava, the last surviving member of the 1938 World Cup champion squad, died in Turin after having had surgery on his right femur due to a fracture days before. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several years. Juventus announced that the following day, for a Serie B match against Napoli, the players would wear mourning armbands in his memory.

Honours

Club

Juventus

• Serie A: 1949-50; Runner-up: 1937–38, 1946–47.
• Serie A-B Runner-up: 1945–46.
• Coppa Italia: 1937-38, 1941-42

International

Italy

• Olympic Gold Medal Winner: 1936.
• FIFA World Cup: 1938.

Individual

• 1938 FIFA World Cup All-star Team.

Further reading

• (Italian) Player bio - www.tifonet.it - Retrieved November 2006.
• Rava's statistics at Juventus - www.myjuve.it - Retrieved November 2006.
• Pietro Rava - International Appearances - www.rsssf.com - by Roberto Di Maggio, RSSSF.
• DatabaseOlympics.com profile

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is stated as fact:
website FIFA [1] in November 2009 introduced some changes in date of birth the player's instead 21 January 1916 (originally written) wrote 12 January 1916

Sporting positions
Preceded by Mario Varglien Iº	Juventus F.C. captains 1942-1949	Succeeded by Carlo Parola