Chinaglia, Giorgio

▪ Italian athlete

born Jan. 24, 1947, Carrara, Italy

      Italian association football (soccer) player who was one of the sport's leading scorers.

      Chinaglia moved to Wales as a schoolboy and in 1964–65 played for Swansea in the Welsh league. He returned to Italy in 1966 and from 1969 to 1974 was a member of the Lazio club. In 1976 Chinaglia joined the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League (NASL), where he gained national attention, and by 1980 the six-foot one-inch 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. In 1983 Chinaglia became part owner and president of the Lazio Soccer Club in Rome, and he retired from the Cosmos after the 1983 season.

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