Herminio Masantonio

1931/43 Huracán (ARG) 352 games, 260 goals

(Argentine Championship: 337 games, 249 goals)

(Copa Beccar Varela: 10 games, 9 goals)

(Copa Adrian C. Escobar: 5 games, 2 goals)

1943 Defensor SC (URU) 11 games, 3 goals

1944 Banfield (ARG) 9 games, 2 goals

1945 Huracán (ARG) 12 games, 5 goals

With the National Team :

19 caps, 21 goals

(Friendly matches: 2 caps)

(Copa America: 8 caps, 11 goals)

(Copa Roca: 5 caps, 5 goals)

(Copa Lipton: 1 cap, 3 goals)

(Copa Chevallier Boutell: 3 caps, 2 goals)

1st cap: January 6, 1935 against Chile (4-1)

Last cap: February 7, 1942 against Uruguay (0-1)

Herminio Masantonio

Born on August 5, 1910 in Ensenada (ARG)

Died on September 11, 1956 in Buenos Aires (ARG)

Argentinian, Striker, 1m80

Herminio Masantonio was born on August 5, 1910 in Ensenada, Argentina. In a family of Italian immigrants, he joined his first football team: Contra Viento y Marea. The anecdote is that this team was made up of eleven people who were looking to bet oranges or beers.

He started playing football in the Argentine fourth division in the Argentine 4th division, then in 1929, he joined Club Platense, still in the same division. With a growing reputation, he was finally spotted in May 1931 by the Huracán club.

At 21, Masantonio did not have ambitions to become a professional footballer but rather a boxer, a sport he used to practice. He made his debut against the Quilmes club away, where he would score the most important goal of his career according to him: "I scored the most incredible goal of my life. I took the ball in the middle of the field. I went around the left half, the midfield and the two backs, finishing with such force that not only did the goalkeeper not see the trajectory of the ball, but many only heard a huge ball hit one of the posts and nothing else".

The thing to know about him is that he was originally a Boca Juniors fan and it was during a match against Boca Juniors that he would hate this team, he missed a penalty and the Boca Juniors fans started laughing and insulting him from the stands. He then focused 100% on Huracán, for his first season, he scored 23 goals. 10 goals less than Alberto Zozaya, the Estudiantes striker.

With his teammate Alejandro de los Santos, he formed a legendary duo of the Argentine club. A player with a strong character, Masantonio would write his legend around his duels and fights on the field. In 1933, he notably fought with Gregorio Esperón, after the match, at the exit of the locker rooms.

Quite consistent in his number of goals scored per season, in 1933, he scored 16 goals, very strong, he had a brutal game and focused on physical play. In a club that plays half of the table, he repeated his good performances in 1934, scoring 23 times.

Despite his rather physical game, he was also a very good dribbler, quite agile and extremely gifted in front of goal. He was a striker who liked to have the ball at his feet, he sometimes abused dribbling, he also had a tendency to go back down to midfield to take the ball and bring it up to the goal by himself.

In 1943, when he was already 33 years old and had spent 12 years of his life playing for Huracán, he had a pass to sign for the Defensor de Montevideo club. He played a few games in Uruguay before returning to Argentina, to the Banfield club in a transfer worth 10,000 pesos.

Herminio Masantonio was called up to the Argentine national team for the first time in 1935 and played his first match on January 6, in a 4-1 victory over Chile. He would play a total of 19 matches, scoring 21 goals, and would become one of his country's first great legends.

Masantonio also entered the history of Argentine football on November 11, 1937, in a 5-1 victory over Uruguay, when he scored the fastest goal in the history of the Argentine national team by scoring a goal after 23 seconds on an assist from José Manuel Moreno.

With Argentina, he was one of the great architects of the two Copa America finals in 1935 and 1942. Unfortunately, he would never win the trophy, despite his two titles as top scorer in the competition in 1935 with 4 goals and 1942 with 7 goals.

- Top scorer of the Copa America in 1935 (4 goals) and 1942 (7 goals)

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