Biography
Born at Carrara, Tuscany, Chinaglia grew up in Wales and began his career with local club Swansea City and also played for Massese, Internapoli, and Lazio in his native Italy. He made his name with Lazio, where he played for seven seasons. In 1974 Chinaglia scored a goal in the Rome derby, and pointed to the Curva Sud, Roma fans, and taunted them. Chinaglia led Lazio to the club's first championship in its history and was the league's lead scorer.
Chinaglia had 14 caps and scored four goals for Italy, and played in the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
Career With the Cosmos
In 1976, Chinaglia moved to the NASL and the New York Cosmos. While many foreign stars would play in the NASL (Pelé being the greatest example), Chinaglia was probably the first great player to leave his original team for the NASL while still in the prime of his career. This is evident with the great success he had in the NASL, scoring 192 goals in 213 games. He led the NASL in scoring four times and would be the league's all-time leading scorer. Chinaglia would win the NASL Most Valuable Player Award in 1981.
However, he was not the most "fan-friendly" player during his career with the Cosmos. In addition to being so outspoken, his move from Italy to the NASL caused a split within the Italian-American community. While many were thrilled to have Chinaglia play in America, others thought he was being disloyal to Italy, and should have stayed there to help them win the FIFA World Cup. This polarization was most famously evident during a home game at Giants Stadium, when a Cosmos fan hired a plane to fly over the stadium during the game with a banner that said, "Giorgio Stinks!"
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