Casa Emigranti Italiani

" To Remember and Understand"

Pantano, Paolo

A most colorful life as a soccer player and successful businessman!

Born in Canicattini in 1923, Paolo immigrated to the USA with his wife in 1949 and they had one son Emanuele. Paul is listed as the goalie for the Hartford Italian American soccer team in an account from 1949 reproduced below.

His name will be synonymous with soccer in Hartford for the next 20 years!

He played goalie for the Hartford Italians, for Trinacria and the Italian American Stars!

He was suspended once in 1950 for getting into a fight and in 1953 he was banned for life for apparently assaulting a Referee in a game at Colts Park.

Somewhere he must have been reinstated as we find him again listed as goalie for the Italian American stars in 1956!

While his playing career came to a close, his new career as manager and organizer / promoter of soccer matches begun! And so began a partnership with Sal Amato, successful builder also from Canicattini: Pantano and Amato would cooperate for well over 15 years!

They formed Trinacria; they founded the Balnea Soccer team ( the old name of the soccer team in their native Canicattini); they formed the Hartford Soccer Club which merged Balnea and Sagittario, another local Italian soccer club!

They brought in players from as far away as Argentina; they brought in team like Tottenham, Bologna, Lazio, Manchester City, Dundee.

In a 1964 interview with famous Courant sports reporter Bill Lee, Pantano is quoted as saying that if the game being played in hartford between Bologna and Victoria was played in Rome it would draw 100,000 fans!

Paul was also a very astute and succesfull builder and worked on such projects as American School for the Deaf, St Joseph College, New Britain Superior Court and Bradley International Airport!

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