Voting is now underway to elect the AS Roma Hall of Fame Class of 2015. To help you make up your mind we’ve put together these brief profiles of the five candidates from the Pioneers category.

Peruse at your leisure then head over to the Polls page to cast your vote!

GUIDO MASETTI
Verona, November 22, 1907
Position: Goalkeeper
Honors: Scudetto 1941-42 (captain), World Cup winner in 1934 and 1938
Total appearances and goals conceded: 364, -390
Appearances and goals conceded in league: 338, -351
Appearances and goals conceded in European competitions: 7, -18
Appearances and goals conceded in Coppa Italia: 19, -21

Guido Masetti is an Italian footballing legend. Captain of the first AS Roma side to win the Scudetto and a member of two Italy World Cup-winning squads (Italy 1934, France 1938), he and Gianpiero Combi were the two great Azzurri goalkeepers in the pre-war era. Having made his debut – as a Hellas Verona player – in front of the Giallorossi crowd at the Motovelodromo Appio on October 9, 1927, Masetti went on to become a mainstay of the Testaccio team. He remained at the club after hanging up his boots, occupying various roles both as first-team coach and with the youth sides.

PEDRO MANFREDINI
Maipu de Mendoza (Argentina), September 7, 1935
Position: Center forward
Honors: Fairs Cup 1960-61, Coppa Italia 1963-64
Total appearances and goals: 164, 104 (ratio 0.634)
Appearances and goals in league: 130, 77
Appearances and goals in European competitions: 20, 18
Appearances and goals in Coppa Italia: 14, 9

An Argentinean by birth, as an adult he became a self-declared ‘Roman’, something he repeated on his most recent visit to the Centro Tecnico Fulvio Bernardini. Top scorer in the 1962-63 Serie A, the 1961 Fairs Cup and the 1964 Coppa Italia, having previously lifted the Copa America with his country in 1959, Manfredini was an undisputed idol for generations of Roma fans and the first player to have a book written about him (Io e Il Piedone, 1962). A charismatic figure with supreme confidence in front of goal, he won over not only the Giallorossi faithful but also many important figures from beyond the football world. One of these was Dino Risi, who ended one of his most famous films (Che vitaccia! from the I Mostri series in 1963) with a Manfredini goal. Sergio Corbucci, another film director, once famously said that a Rome Derby without Manfredini would be like a Sergio Leone film without Clint Eastwood.

RODOLFO VOLK
Rijeka, January 14, 1906
Position: Center forward
Total appearances and goals: 161, 106 (ratio 0.658)
Appearances and goals in league: 157, 103
Appearances and goals in European competitions: 4, 3

Rodolfo Volk married an imposing frame with impeccable on-field behavior and made up for a relative lack of technique with sheer strength and firepower. Serie A’s top scorer in 1931, he also netted the goal that won Roma their first derby. Indeed, plundering goals was a constant for Volk from his first day at the club to his final game against Alessandria. No AS Roma player has sustained a higher goals-to-games ratio than Volk did over five years in the capital. Il Littorale newspaper used a single adjective to describe him, saying there had been a ‘vicious’ shot. Everyone knew who that was.

DINO DA COSTA
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), August 1, 1931
Position: Forward
Total appearances and goals: 163, 79 (ratio 0.485)
Appearances and goals in league: 149, 71
Appearances and goals in European competitions: 4, 3
Appearances and goals in Coppa Italia: 10, 5

The release of a Dino Da Costa autobiography in 2012 gave him the opportunity to return to Rome and see first hand just how fondly he is remembered by Giallorossi fans of all ages. Top scorer in Serie A with Roma in 1957 and in the 1961 Fairs Cup, he also claimed three Coppa Italia medals and a Cup Winners’ Cup crown with other clubs. A phenomenal player who had a habit of always coming up with the goods in the derby, making him a veritable nemesis for Lazio. When, in March 2012, he was asked if he was worried that his record for most derby goals might be beaten, he replied: ‘I hope Roma win, perhaps with Totti scoring.’

AMOS CARDARELLI
Monterotondo (RM), March 6, 1930
Position: Defender
Total appearances and goals: 159, 3
Appearances and goals in Serie A: 121, 2
Appearances and goals in Serie B: 37, 1
Appearances and goals in European competitions: 1, 0

It was a man named Fulvio Bernardini who brought Cardarelli to Roma, the sort of endorsement that would stand any player in good stead. Amos didn’t rest on his laurels though; he proved himself time and time again. Cardarelli played a key role in Roma’s immediate return to the top flight from Serie B in 1951-52 and marked some of the greatest strikers of all time during the course of his career, from Pele to Nordahl. Laid-back, ironic, strapping, Cardarelli always demonstrated a boundless, undying love for the Giallorossi colors. He was ‘adopted’ by esteemed Roma masseur of 40 years Angelino Cerretti, who saw in Cardarelli the spirit and tenacity of the Testaccio generation. Amos called himself a ‘goalscorer’ despite only scoring two in his time at Roma. But then his victims were Lazio and Juventus.