Raffaele Costantino, the first ‘Little King’
Bari, June 14, 1907
Raffaele Costantino is born
While there is a long list of ‘Eighth Kings of Rome’ and debate will always rage, there is no doubt that Raffaele Costantino was the first ‘Little King’ (Reuccio) of Roma.
He wasn’t Roman – he was born and grew up in Bari, a city he loved and where he started and ended his career – but ‘Faele’ was undoubtedly one of AS Roma’s cornerstones in its early days in Testaccio. And he was a lot more too.
He was the first Southern Italian to play for the national team and the first to receive an Italy call-up while playing in Serie B (with a Southern club, U.S. Bari, to boot).
At Roma, he was the forefather of a lineage of exceptional wingers and the first really big signing in Giallorossi history. President Renato Sacerdoti, who had already brought a world-class player in the shape of Fulvio Bernardini to the club in 1928 from under Inter’s nose, forked out 60,000 lira to break down Bari’s resilience and put a true star player on Roma’s right wing. It was a frightening figure in 1930, as were the wages written in black and white on Costantino’s contract.
A complete, pacy, skillful winger, Il Reuccio was the first great number 7 to play for Roma, almost a decade before the introduction of jersey numbers. He was deadly both as a striker himself and as the provider of goals for the two big center forwards of the day, Rodolfo Volk and Enrique Guaita.
Costantino’s arrival in the capital saw the completion of the great Roma team that Italo Foschi had dreamed of and Sacerdoti built. Over the five seasons in which he plied his trade in yellow and red, he helped establish the Giallorossi as a permanent fixture in the upper echelons of Serie A, with a second- and a third-placed finish in 1931 and 1932 respectively.
He scored four goals in the ten derbies he played, netting the last two in a 4-1 win on May 1, 1932, opening the scoring in a 3-1 victory on March 26, 1933 (Cesare Augusto Fasanelli and Fernando Eusebio the other scorers) before finally adding his name to the score sheet alongside Bernardini and Guaita on March 11 a year later in a thrilling 3-3 draw.
80 years on from his final appearance in a Roma jersey (Pro Vercelli 1-4 Roma, June 1935), Costantino still stands in 25th place in AS Roma’s all-time scoring charts, with 43 goals in 161 matches to his name (tied with Guaita and Alberto Orlando).
His goals-per-game ratio (0.267) puts him in 16th place among Giallorossi players with at least 150 appearances in all competitions.
As a winger, those are numbers fit for a King.
Born on this day (stats refer to all competitions)
Raffaele Costantino, June 16, 1907 in Bari – Forward, 161 appearances and 43 goals
Kostantinos Manolàs, June 16, 1991 in Nasso – Defender, 41 appearances and 0 goals
