Francesco Calì
Francesco Calì was an Italian professional football player, coach and referee, who played as a defender. He captained the football team">Association football">football team in their first ever match, on 15 May 1910.
Early life
Calì was born in Riposto, Sicily on 16 May 1882, to Bruno Calì, a wine merchant. After pirate assaults on his father's business, he and his family immigrated to Switzerland two years later; he was nicknamed Franz.Career
Calì played several games as a left-back for Swiss clubs Zürich and Urania [Genève Sport]. He then played for two rival Genovese teams: Genoa and Andrea Doria. He was also a referee during his time at Andrea Doria.Due to his experience as a footballer, as well as his knowledge of several foreign languages, he was selected as the Italy national team captain, in their Italy [national football team records#Captains|first ever game] on 15 May 1910, in Milan against France, where Italy won 6–2.
After his retirement as a player, he was also chosen several times as a member of the List of [Italy national football team managers|technical commission], in 1912, 1914, 1915, 1920 and 1921.