Carpi

"The celebrations ended with them driving down Via del Gambero, where the renowned Farneti wine store was located. Farneti had been the owner of Alba and hadn’t taken kindly to the merger, instead becoming a Lazio man. And so Carpi, Bibbitone, Degni and of course Attilio Ferraris IV drove past the store again and again, grinning from ear to ear. Such was the atmosphere after the first Rome derby!"
-Vittorio Finizio

Roma was a family affair for Giorgio Carpi from the very beginning. He followed in his brother Luciano’s footsteps by first joining Foot Ball Club di Roma, one of the three clubs that would later merge to form AS Roma. His father, meanwhile, was an official at the club and participated in those all-important discussions, though a road accident later robbed him of the chance to see AS Roma flourish. 

Carpi thus became an AS Roma player in June 1927, enjoying a successful decade-long spell with the club.

An elegant, sophisticated and quintessentially Roman man, Carpi asked for nothing more than the cost of his expenses in return for playing for Roma. While respecting his wishes, president Renato Sacerdoti – who had been a friend of Carpi’s father – decided to reward his loyalty by buying him a car in 1930.

Carpi had a wonderful friendship with team-mate Attilio Ferraris, and it was Carpi that encouraged Ferraris to open his legendary bar, Giallorossi wallpaper and all.

After being made an Honorary Member in November 1944, Carpi joined the management team at Roma and held a number of senior roles (including Secretary to the Executive Committee). His influence was felt throughout the club, however, and he even coached the side – under the guise of Technical Director – for two matches against Vojvodina in June and July 1955.

Carpi left the club in 1959, but never ceased to be one of its most ardent supporters. As well as his performance in the first-ever derby on 8 December 1929, which Roma won, another seminal moment of his Giallorossi career came in 1954, as he personally brought the great defender Giacomo Losi to Rome.

So were there any regrets? Just one, it turned out. Speaking in a 1992 interview, Carpi admitted that he would have loved to have scored a Serie A goal for Roma.

“I went very close against Juventus," he recalled, "but [Giampiero] Combi made a great save to rob me of the moment just when I thought I’d done it.”

When derby day rolled around on 11 January 2015, the Roma fans immortalised him by including his face in the famous “Sons of Rome, captains and legends” banner display, which saw the Curva Sud invoke the spirit of Roma’s past in stunning fashion.