Sport was one of the arenas in which the fascist dictators sought to demonstrate the vigour of their ideology. Most famously, Hitler tried to use the 1936 Olympics to celebrate the Nazi creed, but Mussolini also took a close interest in Italy’s football team. Its triumphs included claiming gold at those Berlin Games, the last survivor of the side being the midfielder Giuseppe Baldo.

Although football was an Olympic discipline, the start of the World Cup in 1930 and the onset of professionalism had led to its not being staged at the 1932 Games. It was reintroduced for Berlin, but with new emphasis on the amateur standing of the players.

This, however, was blithely ignored by several of the 16 competing teams, including Italy. Their squad was presented as consisting of students, but while Baldo, for instance, was indeed studying economics and business, he and most of his teammates had also played already in Italy’s top division, Serie A, and he had taken a prominent role in that season’s challenge for the title by his side, Lazio.

In Italy’s first game, against the US, the defender Pietro Rava was sent off for a foul. When the referee made to dismiss another Italian, Achille Piccini, the other players surrounded the official, clamping their hands over his mouth and pinioning his arms. Piccini stayed on and the Italians won 1-0. Italy then beat Japan and Norway to progress to the final against Austria. The latter, however, had won their semi-final because Peru had withdrawn in protest after being told to replay their initial victory over the Austrians because of a pitch invasion by their supporters.

The final, watched by 90,000 spectators, was an even contest until 20 minutes from time, when the Italian striker Annibale Frossi scored. Austria levelled ten minutes later, but Frossi grabbed the winner in extra time. The players duly gave the Fascist salute on receiving their medals, and several of them would play in the side that retained the World Cup two years later.

Giuseppe Baldo was born in 1914 at Piombino Dese, near Padua, and by the age of 18 was turning out for Pado-va in Serie A. In 1935, after three seasons, in which he gained a reputation for hard running and for reading the game well, the sturdy, redheaded Baldo was bought by Lazio. He played for the Romans for seven years, making 186 appearances and scoring eight times, before war brought an end to league football, and to his career, in 1942.

For the next few years he worked for the Italian football federation, and subsequently became the director of a sporting academy. In later life, he retired to his wife’s home town of Montecatini Terme, near Pistoia in Tuscany.

Giuseppe Baldo, footballer, was born on July 27, 1914. He died on July 31, 2007, aged 93