EDDIE FIRMANI

18th July 1955 

In March 1951, the soccer transfer record was set by Jackie Sewell’s transfer from Notts County to Sheffield Wednesday.

The 18th July 1955, was the day that a new transfer fee record for a Football League player was set. Eddie Firmani moved from Charlton Athletic to Italian team Sampdoria (63 apps/52 goals) for £35,000, a record fee for a British club, beginning an eight-year spell in Italy, when he also gained three caps for the Italian national team, qualifying for the national team because his grandfather was Italian. Firmani was paid £5,000 signing on fee and his wage rose from £15-150 p.w.,  a fortune at the time. He next played for 8 years with Internationale (82 apps/38 goals) and Genoa (62/25).

While playing in Italy, he was given a nickname which was later modified twice. He was originally called Il Tacchino (The Turkey) because he flapped his elbows when he ran. It was first changed to Il Tacchino Freddo (The Cold Turkey) for the way he celebrated his goals, before he was finally known as Il Tacchino d'Oro (The Golden Turkey) when he began scoring with greater frequency.

Eddie Firmani, born in Cape Town on August 7th 1933, played as a centre or inside forward when he joined English team Charlton Athletic in 1950. He became a regular goal scorer, including scoring five goals in a 6–1 win against Aston Villa in 1955 and totalling 50 goals in 100 apps. At the time the Charlton team included several South Africans, John Howie, Stuart Leary and Sid O'Linn. During his first spell with Charlton he married Pat Robinson, daughter of the club's assistant manager. 

In 1960 Eddie Firmani wrote an 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.

He returned to England in 1963, linking up again with Charlton Athletic, second division club (as was then). After two years he moved to Southend United in the third division but returned to The Valley for a third spell with Charlton 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, albeit only 50 in the English First Division. In 1975, he played one game for the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL.

In 1967 Firmani was appointed Charlton manager and retired as a player. Firmani thus became the first Italian international to manage an English club. 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 NASL sides: Tampa Bay Rowdies, NY Cosmos and Philadelphia Fury. He was named the NASL coach of the year in 1976, when he guided Tampa Bay to the best regular season record. He also led the Rowdies to the finals of the NASL's indoor tournament in 1975 and 1976, winning the latter. 

In 1977 Firmani was signed by the Cosmos mid-season, after having resigned from the Rowdies for personal reasons. At the time the Cosmos had a team featuring Pele, Beckenbauer, Chinaglia and  Brazil's World Cup-winning capt in 1970, Carlos Alberto and the Cosmos won back-to-back titles in 1977 and 1978. In June 1979, he coached the New Jersey Americans and later returned to coach in the NASL as coach of the Fury.

He later managed Canadian sides in 1983-93 and went back to the NASL 1996. Firmani later coached in the Middle East during the mid-to-late 1980s, and in the early 1990s, where he worked as a manager in both Kuwait and Oman. He was also held captive during the First Gulf War but was released unharmed.

Firmani spent 8 years in Italy – also playing for Inter-Milan and Genoa – and he qualified to play for Italy 3 times, as he had an Italian grandfather. Perhaps three times was because he wasn't quite up to it??

He returned to Charlton in 1963 and later had a spell as manager the The Valley.

Below is a list of the transfer history building up to a 6 figure value (not MILLIONS!!)

Date	Player	From	To	Fee
1893	Willie Groves	West Bromwich Albion	Aston Villa	£100
January 1904	Andy McCombie	Sunderland	Newcastle Utd	£700
February 1905	Alf Common	Sunderland	Middlesbrough	£1,000
February 1911	John Simpson	Falkirk	Blackburn Rov	£1,800
Nov 1913	George Utley	Barnsley	Sheffield United	£2,000
February 1914	Percy Dawson	Heart of Midlothian	Blackburn Rov	£2,500
Dec 1920	David Mercer	Hull City	Sheffield United	£4,500
February 1922	Syd Puddefoot	West Ham United	Falkirk	£5,000
March 1922	Warney Cresswell	South Shields	Sunderland	£5,500
Dec 1925	Bob Kelly	Burnley	Sunderland	£6,500
October 1928	David Jack	Bolton Wanderers	Arsenal	£10,890
March 1938	Bryn Jones	Wolverhampton W	Arsenal	£14,500
Sept 1947	Billy Steel	Morton	Derby County	£15,500
Nov 1947	Tommy Lawton	Chelsea	Notts County	£20,000
Feb 1948	Len Shackleton	Newcastle United	Sunderland	£20,500
Feb 1949	Johnny Morris	Manchester United	Derby County	£24,000
Dec 1949	Eddie Quigley	Sheffield Wednesday	Preston N E	£26,500
Oct 1950	Trevor Ford	Aston Villa	Sunderland	£30,000
March 1951	Jackie Sewell	Notts County	Sheffield Wed	£34,500
July 1955	Eddie Firmani	Charlton Athletic	Sampdoria	£35,000
April 1957	John Charles	Leeds United	Juventus	£65,000
June 1961	Gerry Hitchens	Aston Villa	Internazionale	£85,000
July 1962	Denis Law	Torino	Manchester Utd	£115,000

Syd Puddefoot: More on Syd tomorrow!