At the close of the 1920’s Bologna had become champions of Italy. From this, the club secured a foothold in Italian football from which they built up a legacy. They were the last champions under the old system – the Serie A came into existence in 1930. Bologna showed off their Scudetto patch on a prestigious tour of Latin America in which they faced Juventus, foreshadowing a series of exciting clashes against the team who would become their main challengers for the league over the next decade. A number of South American players joined Bologna as a result of the tour, most notably Francisco Fedullo and Raffaele Sansone from Uruguay, who took the opportunity to return to the homeland of their parents.

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Carlo Reguzzoni also joined around this time, becoming a club icon with 359 appearances for Bologna and 141 goals in 14 seasons between 1930 and 1943. Reguzzoni went on to become a World Cup winner in 1938 after taking over the mantle in Italy’s forward line from Angelo Schiavio. He is Bologna’s second highest goal scorer of all time, only behind Schiavio himself. With Monzeglio and Monsanto patrolling the wings, this Rossoblu side marched onto the European stage where, as a major power in Italian football, they took on sides from Germany and, later, England. In 1932, Bologna collected their first Mitropa Cup with their Hungarian manager Gyula Lelovics at the helm. They repeated the feat in 1934 with a win over Admira Vienna in the final.

 

Off the pitch, the clubs structure altered immensely with the arrival of Italian industrialist Renato Dall’Ara, whose extraordinary presidency of Bologna lasted for 30 years, and from whom the clubs stadium takes its name today. Bolognas Angelo Schiavio scored the winning goal for Italy in the 1934 World Cup final, and continued playing for Bologna through a golden period in the clubs history that yielded a further four Italian championships in 1936, 1937, 1939 and 1941. When the best clubs in Europe converged on Paris for the 1937 Expo, Bologna achieved another feat with a 4-1 win over Chelsea. This was the first time a British team had been beaten by continental opposition in the tournament.

 

Under newly implemented racial laws, Arpaid Weisz, the manager under whom Bologna won three titles, was forced to leave Italy in 1938 due to the fact that he was Jewish. This saw the return of Ermanno Felser who oversaw the clubs first triumphs. Club favourite Amadeo Biavati also rejoined Bologna, the man responsible for popularising the use of tricks, skills and feints in Italian football who is also known for inventing the step-over. This dummy on the dribble technique would often leave opponents dumbfounded, allowing Biavati to pick out the head of Ettore Puricelli who boasted an impressive scoring record.

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Achievements: Serie A – Champions x4
                         Mitropa Cup – Winners x2

Star player: Angelo Schiavio DOB 15 October 1905, Bologna, Italy

Playing as a striker, Schiavio spent his entire career at Bologna – that’s 361 appearances between 1922 and 1939. Schiavio won four league titles with the club and is their all time leading goalscorer. He was born in Bologna, and lived there for his whole life. He was quick and powerful, and often used force to score goals. He was also known as an accurate finisher who could score with both feet. The season prior to the introduction of the Serie A was his most prolific – he scored 30 times in just 26 games. With 249 goals in that period, Schiavio cemented his place as an important figure in the clubs history. At 20, he made his Italian national team debut. He made it a memorable one by scoring both goals in a 2-1 defeat of Yugoslavia. He played an instrumental role in Italy’s 1934 World Cup win, scoring four goals including a hat-trick against the USA – the first of which was Italy’s first ever World Cup goal. He scored the decisive goal in the final, giving his country a 2-1 win over Czechoslovakia. It would be his final game for Italy. Schiavio died in his beloved Bologna in April, 1990, the last surviving member of Italy’s 1934 team.