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World Cup 2022: Vittorio Pozzo's legacy and a record that is finally under threat

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By Chris Evans
BBC Sport
Italy celebrate winning the 1938 World CupGetty Images

Pozzo holds aloft the Jules Rimet trophy after Italy's 1938 World Cup win

When Didier Deschamps leads his side out to face Argentina in Sunday's World Cup final, he will be hoping to take a further big step towards becoming only the second manager to retain the trophy.

Just two nations have managed to win back-to-back men's World Cups, Italy in 1934 and 1938 and Brazil in 1958 and 1962, but with the Selecao job changing hands between successes, former Azzurri coach Vittorio Pozzo stands alone.

Nicknamed Il Vecchio Maestro (the Old Master) in coaching circles, Pozzo was considered a visionary of the time and is credited as one of the minds behind the Metodo formation, the earliest example of the 4-3-3 we recognise today.

Yet far from being revered as the only manager to win the men's World Cup twice, Pozzo remains relatively little known. And there is a reason for that.

"It's deliberate that few people know who he is," says historian Dr Alex Alexandrou, the chair and co-founder of the Football and War network.

"If you think about post-1945 Italy, and how Fifa and the Italian Football Federation project and promote themselves, the one thing they didn't want to do was give credence to Pozzo and what happened during the 1930s, because there is a significant link with the far right and fascism."

Despite Pozzo first taking charge of the national team for the 1912 Olympics - before fascists rose to power in Italy - and never being a member of the National Fascist Party, his story is inextricably linked to the far right movement that culminated in Benito Mussolini's dictatorship.

The four stars proudly emblazoned on Italy's national team shirt to symbolise their quartet of World Cup wins acknowledge the victories of 1934 and 1938, but there's still some unease around them.

"There's this slight sort of smell, if you like, after the war, and Pozzo isn't as famous or exulted as he might be because he won his trophies under a fascist regime," explains Italian football expert John Foot in new book How to Win the World Cup.

"He wasn't forced to do that; he participated in that. The players gave the fascist salute and there was a lot of rhetoric around them, so it's a problem in of Italy. Do those World Cups even count">