lit a candle 3h agoMy sister rang from Arona this morning to tell me. We ate at La Vecchia Arona years ago on a holiday, before I even knew he'd played for Novara, just for the ravioli everyone talked about. Eighty two, and forty years in that kitchen.
Their story
Franco Carrera was an Italian footballer, a midfielder who came through the Juventus youth system, played in Serie A for Juventus and SPAL, and became the captain and playmaker of Novara in the early 1970s. After leaving football he spent about forty years as a chef and restaurateur on Lake…
Franco Carrera was an Italian footballer, a midfielder who came through the Juventus youth system, played in Serie A for Juventus and SPAL, and became the captain and playmaker of Novara in the early 1970s. After leaving football he spent about forty years as a chef and restaurateur on Lake Maggiore. He died on 27 October 2026, aged 82.
He was born in Turin on 8 November 1943. Spotted by the former Juventus player Carlo Mattrel, he grew up in the Juventus youth teams and made his first team debut in a Coppa Italia match against Prato in October 1961. His Serie A debut followed on 10 February 1963, a 2 to 1 Juventus win away at Bologna.
In 1963 he moved to Potenza in Serie B, where he played alongside the young Roberto Boninsegna. On the last day of the 1964 to 1965 season he scored directly from a corner in a win over SPAL, and the SPAL president Paolo Mazza was impressed enough to sign him. He played nine Serie A games for SPAL before returning to Potenza, where he scored ten goals in a season, and then had spells with Foggia and Catania.
In 1969 he joined Novara, then in Serie C. Under coach Carlo Parola he was the pillar of the side that won promotion to Serie B at the first attempt, and he went on to play six consecutive seasons for the club, one in Serie C and five in Serie B, eventually wearing the captain's armband. Novara credits him with 211 appearances. He later played for Taranto, Parma and Aosta before retiring in 1978, with 14 Serie A appearances and nearly 300 in Serie B over his career.
Away from football he found a second vocation in the kitchen. With his wife Loretta he ran the restaurant La Vecchia Arona for around forty years, and he became known locally for his hand made Piedmontese ravioli, made to his mother's recipe. As late as 2022 he was still cooking them in public at a food festival in Verbania.
Carrera died on 27 October 2026 at the age of 82. In recent years he had lived in Belgirate. Novara Calcio paid tribute to him as a charismatic playmaker and a fundamental point of reference in the dressing room, saying he had left an indelible mark with his class and his humanity. No cause of death was made public.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Corriere di Novara, La Stampa. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1Franco Carrera in Novara colours, Panini album 1970-71
by People Forever
Lovely you got to try it. That place was special.