Football, Ilario Castagner died: he led the “Perugia of miracles”

Mourning in the world of football. Ilario Castagner, a former coach and footballer who linked his career to Perugia, has died at the age of 82. His son Federico announces it in a post on Facebook. «Today the most beautiful smile of Italian football went away – he wrote – Thanks to all the doctors and health personnel of the “Santa Maria della Misericordia” hospital in Perugia who have taken care of him in recent weeks. Hi Dad…”.
Castagner, who had turned 82 last December, had been coach of the ‘Perugia dei miracoli’ but also coach of Lazio, Milan and Inter.

Castagner was the coach of Perugia who finished the championship unbeaten in 1974 (the first coach to do so) finishing second in the standings behind Milan and coming close to dreaming of the Scudetto. The coach from Vittorio Veneto has always remained very close to Perugia, which he also coached on two occasions in the 1990s, and to the city where he had stopped to live with his family. His death took place today, February 18, the day on which the Perugia-Ternana derby is being played at the stadium dedicated to Renato Curi, who he coached, and which a year ago had lost its captain, Pierluigi Frosio. During his career, Castagner also led famous clubs such as Inter, Lazio and Milan, bringing the latter back to the top flight in the 1982-1983 season. While as a player he was a center forward, and made his professional debut with the Reggiana shirt in the 1959-1960 season, in Serie B, the highest category reached as a footballer. He then descends to Serie C, level where he continues the rest of his career, wearing the Legnano shirt for a year before being noticed by Guido Mazzetti, then coach of Parma, who decides to take him with him on the new adventure at Perugia, where Castagner plays for the next three years; in the last season in Umbria, 1963-1964, the attacker achieved his best personal result by winning the scorer classification in group B of the third series with 17 goals. He then follows another three years at Prato, before ending his sporting career early in 1969, at the age of twenty-eight, in the ranks of Rimini. From August 2005 to October 2006 he held the position of technical director and honorary president of Perugia, a club undergoing reconstruction after the bankruptcy of the Gaucci management, under the presidency of Vincenzo Silvestrini. After retiring, he began his career as a television commentator collaborating first with Telemontecarlo and, later, with Mediaset Premium and Rai Italia.