In what is arguably the most chaotic professional season in recent memory, Serie B in 2004/05 saw match-fixing and national scandal rock calcio
Tag: calcio
Introducing Calcio II: the Football Italia years
Calcio is back by popular demand, and this time we’re headed for the Football Italia years, when Serie A ruled the world and the game’s greats adorned the peninsula. Wherever you were,…
Arrigo Sacchi: the greatest nobody of all time
This feature is part of The Masterminds He came as a former shoe salesman, left as a legend, and rewrote calcio’s tactical rulebook along the way. He coined some of the greatest quotes…
The journey of Maurizio Sarri from Italy’s sixth tier to Napoli stardom
WHEN THE UNHERALDED MAURIZIO SARRI was appointed as Napoli coach to replace Rafa Benítez ahead of the 2015/16 season, it was met largely with indifference. “We won’t have a winning Napoli with…
How Gheorghe Hagi rebuilt his career in Serie B with Brescia
THERE IS SOMETHING about Brescia Calcio. Founded in 1911 in the quaint but industrial city that is situated in the Lombardy region of Italy, they are oft described as a yo-yo team, yet…
What do Napoli and Diego Maradona mean to a generation of younger fans?
"WHAT DISTINGUISHES NAPLES from other large cities is something it has in common with the African kraal: each private attitude or act is permeated by streams of communal life. To exist, for…
Pierluigi Collina: the outlier in black
BETWEEN 1995 AND 2005, one man seemed to be a constant fixture in the biggest games, from the Olympic and World Cup finals to the Champions League and UEFA Cup finals. For…
Lost in translation: why the Italian game is never the same in English
As featured on Guardian Sport As a football fan living in the United States, it blows my mind how many games are available on television these days. I’m 33 now and can…
A potted history of key South American figures in Serie A
THE CROWD AT THE GIUSEPPE MEAZZA WAS DELIRIOUS. Mauro Icardi just converted a penalty in the 90th minute to clinch a 3-2 win for Inter over AC Milan in the Derby della…
Venezia FC: the club stuck between a rock and the changing sea
THE CONFINES OF WHAT MAKES VENICE UNIQUE AS A CITY are seemingly restrictive factors for a football team. Extremely limited physical space to train and play, a tiny permanent population from which…
How the Italian national team fell from its lofty perch
OVER THE YEARS, Italian football has endured its fair share of sporting, socio-cultural, political and economic hardships. The 2006 Calciopoli scandal sent shockwaves throughout the Peninsula, leaving three of Serie A’s top four…
Can a Milan backed by shady Chinese money ever become a football capital again?
THE NEW SOCIETY OF AC MILAN doesn’t sound too far from something the iconoclastic Italian politician and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi would have dreamed up, but it is in fact the symbolic…
How Simone Inzaghi stepped out of Pippo’s shadow to become Italy’s best young manager
IT SEEMED AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK, but by the end, Lazio had made it possible. For more than two years Juventus had been undefeated in Turin, an imposing, inexorable force with six successive…
Gianfranco Zola and Diego Maradona at Napoli: the student and the mentor
DIEGO MARADONA IS AN IMMORTAL ICON IN NAPLES, a figure with almost divine right within his adopted city and the Stadio San Paolo. In the Campania capital, there is no Pelé, Ronaldo or…
Roberto Boninsegna and the match of the infamous Coca-Cola can
Partita Della Lattina has a nice ring to it. It rolls off the tongue with the beauty of the Italian language, almost rhythmic when spoken. The phrase comes across as playful –…
Gabriele Marcotti talks Italian football past and present
One of the game’s finest writers, Gabriele Marcotti, talks about one of the game’s most treasured leagues, Serie A, in this wide-ranging delve into Italian football. Gab is joined by TFT’s Jim…
John Charles: the gentle giant who became the greatest import in Juventus history
LAND OF MY FATHERS swept through the cold St David’s Day air, the Swansea Male Voice Choir sang for one of their own. The crowds outside the Leeds parish church were there…
Pavel Nedvěd and the art of transcending fierce rivalries
Illustration by Federico Manasse Football is seldom, if ever, free from political realities. Had it not been for the collapse of Communism in 1989, Pavel Nedvěd’s career would have likely followed the…