Luigi Barbesino

Who was Luigi Barbesino?

Luigi Barbesino was an Italian association footballer and manager from Casale Monferrato in the region of Piedmont. He was a one club man in the truest sense of the term, spending his eight playing seasons at his home town club Casale, helping them to win their one and only Italian Football Championship title.

Barbesino represented Italy at international level, he is the first youngest international player for Italy ever, making his debut against Sweden at 18 years 2 months. He represented his country in football at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

When World War II began, Barbesino abandoned football to serve as a Major observer in the Regia Aeronautica, flying in Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 trimotors of 194ª squadriglia bombardamento terrestre based with the rest of 20° Stormo on Sciacca airfield in Sicily. On 20 April 1941 he was an observer on an aircraft flying on the Sciacca-Kuriate-Kerkenna-Sciacca course. While his wingman turned back one-hour after take-off due to bad weather, Barbesino's aircraft was never heard of again. To this day, he and the entire crew of six are still posted as missing.