Annibale Frossi, the bespectacled winger

MILAN – In the tiny town of Flambro near Udine, Rosina Concina, the widow of Dr Cesare Giuseppe Frossi, came to hear of some worrying news regarding her son. The young footballer had joined Padova from Udinese. It was 1931 and Annibale Frossi was still at school, so she called the Carabinieri and had them take him back to Udine.

The boy's career path had long been set out: he was to become a doctor, like his father before him. Raised in an affluent family, Frossi was studying at Bertoni boarding school in Udine when he discovered his passion for football. He earned himself the nickname pie veloce (swift foot) due to his pace and when Udinese scout Toni Calderan spotted him in 1928, it was decided he would become the Friulian outfit's next right winger.

Annibale tried to hide his love for the game from his mother, but when news of his transfer to Padova reached her, the game was up. Brought back to Udine by the authorities, he had to negotiate with his mother. It was agreed he could carry on playing but he mustn't give up his studies.  

The thick glasses he wore while playing – due to short-sightedness – helped him make a name for himself. “My glasses bring my luck and maybe they're the reason why I'm starting to gain a bit of popularity,” the young winger said.

Blessed with searing pace and an excellent cross, Annibale's idol was Giuseppe Meazza and he dreamt of one day playing alongside him at Inter.

Compulsory military service took him away from both Padova and Udine, where he would remain a popular figure and a road near the Stadio Friuli was named after him following his death. His football career spared him from being conscripted for Italy's campaign in Ethiopia, though, and he joined Aquila, in Serie B. That was the springboard that propelled him towards the fulfilment of what he had thought was an impossible dream – playing for Inter.

The Nerazzurri signed him when he was 25 and gave him his first runout in a friendly in Lucca. “There are no words that can describe how I felt when I found out I was going to play alongside Meazza, Demaria and Ferraris. As I stepped onto the pitch my heart was pounding and I could hardly feel my legs,” he recalled.

Vittorio Pozzo had noticed Frossi too and as Inter's new signing was still enrolled at school, the Italy coach named him captain of the Azzurri side that took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Frossi took the tournament by storm, firing Italy to their first (and only) Olympic triumph with seven goals in four matches.

Annibale was a man of his word who believed firmly in his ideas. When the Italy Olympics team was invited to Rome by Benito Mussolini he was the only one who didn't do the Roman salute. And to maintain the promise he'd made to his mother, he enrolled for a Law degree.

He graduated in 1941 after realising his greatest dream of all: becoming champion of Italy with Inter – and Meazza. Frossi won two league titles (1937/38 and 1939/40) and the Coppa Italia (1938/39), writing his name in the Nerazzurri history books.

Afterwards he played for Pro Patria and Como, before hanging up his boots and focusing on his work for Alfa Romeo.

A few years later, almost by chance, he went into coaching. He became known for his obsessive attention to detail and unwavering belief in defensive formations. A friend of renowned sports journalist Gianni Brera, he also wrote a tactical column in Corriere dello Sport.  

He died of pneumonia on 26 February 1999 in Milan – the city where many decades previously he helped make Inter history.

Davide Zanelli