On July 16, 1950, Alcides Ghiggia silenced an entire nation by provided an assist and a goal to defeat Brazil and secure World Cup glory for Uruguay in what became known as the Maracanazo. Three years later, during an historic shareholders’ meeting, Giallorossi president Renato Sacerdoti made the surprise announcement that Ghiggia would be joining the club, sending the Roma faithful’s imagination into overdrive.

The arrival of Ghiggia proved to be the move that sparked a renaissance for the Giallorossi over the subsequent years, as they built a formidable strikeforce around the phenomenal South American winger. The likes of Carlo Galli, Dino Da Costa, Arne Selmosson, Pedro Manfredini, Alberto Orlando, Severino Lojodice, Paolo Pestrin and Francisco Lojacono all played their part for the Roma offense during that era.

Another player to have shared the field with Ghiggia was midfielder Giancarlo De Sisti: “I was very young and had come up from the Juniores team, but I’ll always remember how one day, during training, Ghiggia pulled me aside and said ‘let’s knock the ball about just me and you, you’re one of the few I can do it with’. It’s something I’ve always carried with me, an unforgettable compliment. It was Ghigghia!”

Indeed, in 1953, when De Sisti was a mere boy of ten, Ghigghia was already a legend in his homeland. As well as the 1950 World Cup, he’d won two national titles with Peñarol, the team who then sold him to Roma.

In a telegram sent to Sacerdoti after the transfer, Ghiggia wrote: “Playing in Italy with Roma was my dream. I sincerely thank you for having allowed me to make it a reality. I shout long live Roma Calcio alongside the most avid Giallorossi fan.”

Thanks to his Italian grandparents, Ghiggia became one of the many foreign-born players to represent the Italian national team, making a handful of appearances for the Azzurri. Yet it is undoubtedly his time with Roma for which he is known best in this country – he made 213 appearances and scored 19 goals for the Giallorossi, and lavished the fans with endless dribbling, skills and pinpoint crosses.

Outrageously gifted from a technical standpoint, his was a love affair with football and he played the game as if it were a personal battle between him and the scoreboard. Roma’s No. 7 quickly became a leader on the pitch, donning the captain’s armband for the first time in 1957 after inheriting it from his friend Arcadio Venturi and defending his team-mates to the hills always.

When, in 2014, we called him to inform him that he’d been inducted into the AS Roma Hall of Fame he had two special messages to get across before saying goodbye. The first was for Venturi (“please say hello to my friend Arcadio”), while the other was for his beloved Roma: “As we used to say in my time, forza Lupi!”

Ghiggia passed away yesterday, July 16, 2015, exactly 65 years to the day of that World Cup final in the Maracanã. As a mark of respect, Roma will wear black armbands when they take on Real Madrid tomorrow in Melbourne.

Farewell, Alcides.

Born: Montevideo (Uruguay), December 22, 1926.
Position: Right wing.
Foot: Right.
AS Roma from 1953 to 1961.
Captain from 1957 to 1960.
Total appearances and goals: 213, 19.
Serie A appearances and goals: 201, 19.
Coppa Italia appearances and goals: 4, 0.
European appearances and goals: 8, 0.
Honors: World Cup 1950 (Uruguay), Uruguayan league title 1949, 1950 (Peñarol).
Uruguayan national team: 12 appearances, 4 goals.
Italian national team: 5 appearances, 0 goals.