Pompeo D'Ambrosio

When the Banco Latino went bankrupt in 1994, Pompeo D'Ambrosio received an outstanding applause (appeared on all the Venezuelan media) from the "Association of Employees of the Latino Bank", during a conference denouncing the corruption of Tinoco and his group (Siro Febres Cordero, etc..).

The D'Ambrosio Era of the team lasted twenty years until 1978 and was characterized by four championships of the Primera División Venezolana and the famous "Little Maracanazo" of 1971 (when the Deportivo Italia won in the Stadium Maracanã of Rio de Janeiro the Fluminense, Champion of Brasil). The team obtained even three times the Copa de Venezuela: in 1961, 1962, and 1970 (and was Runner-up in 1976). Furthermore, the team participated six times to the South American Copa Libertadores: in 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, and 1972.

Additionally - in those golden years of the D'Ambrosio Era - the Deportivo Italia won in international tournaments some renowned European teams (like the Milan of Italy in 1968) and was the first Venezuelan team - in all the history of the Venezuelan soccer - to reach the second round of the Copa Libertadores (in 1964).

The sixties were the "golden" years of the Deportivo Italia, because they were Venezuelan Champions in 1961, 1963, and 1966. The fourth title for the team was obtained in 1972 (and was Runner-up in 1965, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971).

Indeed, between 1961 and 1972, every year, the Deportivo Italia of Pompeo and Mino D'Ambrosio obtained first or second place in the Venezuelan Championships (and/or a good performance in the South American Copa Libertadores).

Furthermore, Pompeo D'Ambrosio is mainly remembered by the Italian community of Venezuela because of his D'Ambrosio Era, when ruled with his brother Mino the Deportivo Italia (from 1958 to 1978, when soccer rose in prominence in Venezuela).

In 1958 Mino D'Ambrosio took control of the Deportivo Italia and with his brother Pompeo D'Ambrosio (who financially controlled the team) made the soccer team of the Italian community reach the top level in Venezuelan football.

In 1951 Pompeo D'Ambrosio moved to Venezuela, where started to work as Director of the "Banco Francés e Italiano" (called later "Banco Latino"), financing the Italian community of Caracas, Maracaibo and Puerto La Cruz.

When he returned to Italy from an Allied Prisoner of War Camp in Egypt, in 1946 co-founded in Salerno the local section of the Movimento Sociale Italiano, a national-conservative Italian Party later named Alleanza Nazionale and in 2022 governing Italy with the name "Fratelli d'Italia".

In the late 1930s, Pompeo D'Ambrosio studied "Administration of Italian Colonies" at the University of Naples.

In the late 1930s he was a pilot of the Italian Air Force, but an accident forced him to be discharged from aerial service and so he became a lieutenant of the Italian Army in 1940:

Pompeo D'Ambrosio (1 January 1917, in San Marco Evangelista (near Salerno), Italy – 15 April 1998, in Caracas, Venezuela).