BORN IN THE TOWN of Castellammare di Stabia, beneath the brooding Mount Vesuvius, Fabio Quagliarella would have been four-years-old when his beloved Napoli won the Scudetto and Coppa Italia in 1987. Led…
Tag: italy
BENEDIKT TASCHEN’S BOOK ON 1970s FOOTBALL PHOTOGRAPHY is titled The Age of Innocence. An apt title, perhaps – it was the final time when footballers were still at some level “our lads”, clubs…
This feature is part of The Masterminds: 10 Under 45 Vincenzo Montella is not entirely dissimilar to Roberto Mancini. Like the former Inter and Manchester City manager, Montella exudes effortless charisma and…
As featured on Guardian Sport SOME FOOTBALLERS HAVE the privilege of working under gifted tacticians and thoroughbred winners during their careers, but it’s the intuitive ones who take it upon themselves to…
ARTISTS, EXPERT, INVENTORS, composers, producers and virtuosos; few exist in isolation. Creative license, by design or by necessity, can camouflage or gloss over the painstaking hours of practice and relentless hard work…
With the dismissal of Frank de Boer after less than three months in the job, it came as little surprise that Internazionale were not suitably prepared to find and subsequently hire his…
A QUICK GOOGLE SEARCH for ‘art and football’ conjures the proverbial mixed bag of results. Online stores pedalling various prints and t-shirts, YouTube clips featuring an array of Brazilian World Cup dream…
Wy always him? It’s a question that many people are still striving to find an answer to; why controversy always appears to follow Mario Balotelli wherever he goes. The Italian has been…
CLOSE YOUR EYES and imagine you’re in Genoa, the city in the north-west of Italy where Christopher Columbus was born. On one side of the street you’ll find the Lanterna, the famous…
WHILE THE WORLD was in the death grip of the worst economic depression in history in the summer of 1934, fascist Italy hosted the second FIFA World Cup in what remains the…
Founded in 1906, Torino Football Club are perhaps the most tragic team in the history of football. Many who have heard of Torino know them solely for the Superga disaster, but in truth,…
The story of the European Championship’s emergence to global prestige starts with humble beginnings and a dream. International football, in and of itself, had only been in existence for just under a…
IN THE LONG HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL, a total of just 20 men can boast lifting the game’s ultimate prize. It is a particularly selective group of illustrious players, but of all those…
“I DON’T FEEL pressure … I don’t give a toss about it. I spent the afternoon of July 9 in Berlin sleeping and playing the PlayStation. In the evening, I went out…
This feature is part of The Masterminds THE PRESS CONFERENCE was an explosive three minutes, leaving a cluster of Germany’s top journalists stunned and bewildered. Bayern Munich coach Giovanni Trapattoni was addressing…
It’s 15 May 2016 at the Friuli stadium in Udine, and the final match for Antonio Di Natale after 438 outings and 226 goals for Udinese. The prince of calcio is leaving…
This feature is part of The Masterminds IF TROPHIES ARE your thing, let’s start with them. Marcello Lippi, the grandfather of modern Italian football, won a World Cup, a Champions League and…
As something of a vagabond journeyman, Luca Toni has carved out an unlikely career as one of the continent’s most effective goalscorers. We celebrate his rise from obscurity to dominance at the World Cup, goals at Bayern Munich and longevity at Verona.