Eddie Firmani

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Eddie Firmani
Personal information
Full name	Edwin Ronald Firmani
Date of birth	August 7, 1933 (1933-08-07) (age 74)
Place of birth	Cape Town, South Africa
Playing position	Striker
Youth clubs
1949–1950	Clyde F.C. (Cape Town)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1950–1955 1955–1958 1958–1961 1961–1963 1963–1965 1965–1967 1967–1968	Charlton Athletic Sampdoria Internazionale Genoa Charlton Athletic Southend United Charlton Athletic	112 (51) 063 (52) 082 (48) 062 (25) 055 (32) 055 (24) 010 0(6)
National team
1956–1958	Italy	003 0(2)
Teams managed
1967–1970 1975–1977 1977–1979 1980 1981–1982 1984 1993 1996	Charlton Athletic Tampa Bay Rowdies New York Cosmos Philadelphia Fury Montreal Manic New York Cosmos Montreal Impact New York/New Jersey MetroStars
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Edwin Ronald "Eddie" Firmani (born 7 August 1933 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a former South African football player and manager. He represented Italy internationally.

Firmani played as a centre or inside forward. He joined English team Charlton Athletic in 1950 and became a regular goal scorer, including scoring five goals in a 6–1 win against Aston Villa in 1955. At the time the Charlton team included several South Africans, Hewie, O'Linn and Ufton. During his first spell with Charlton he married Pat Robinson, daughter of the club's assistant manager. Later in 1955 he moved to Italian team Sampdoria for £35,000, which at the time was a record transfer fee involving a British club, beginning an eight year spell in Italy when he gained 3 caps for the Italian national team, qualifying for the national team as his grandfather was Italian. He also played for Internazionale and Genoa.

He returned to England in 1963, linking up again with Charlton. After two years he moved to Southend United but returned to The Valley for a third spell two seasons later. In total, he made 177 appearances for the Addicks, scoring 89 goals. In recognition of his talents, he was named as Charlton's greatest overseas player in 2005. Firmani is the only man ever to have scored 100 League goals in both England and Italy.

In 1967 Firmani was appointed Charlton manager and retired as a player. In his second season in charge, Charlton finished third in the Second Division just missing out on promotion. He was fired in March 1970 with the Addicks battling against relegation to the Third Division. Firmani moved to North America and managed several North American Soccer League sides: Tampa Bay Rowdies, New York Cosmos and Philadelphia Fury which turned into Montreal Manic. He managed the Rowdies to the NASL championship in 1975 in his first year in charge and was named the NASL coach of the year in 1976 and also won the NASL championship with New York Cosmos in 1978. He later managed Canadian side Montreal Impact in 1993 and Major League Soccer side New York/New Jersey MetroStars in 1996.

In 1960 Firmani wrote a volume of autobiography "Football with the Millionaires", which provides an interesting contrast between the lifestyle of Italian footballers and their English counterparts in the era of the maximum wage.

[edit] External links

• Profile at www.cafc.co.uk