ITALIAN FOOTBALL IS GOING THROUGH somewhat of a transitional phase, with both Milan sides failing to qualify for Europe for the first time in 60 years. At the other end of the scale…
Tag: serie a
The history of football, like anything that hinges on so many disparate variables converging in one place, plays host to innumerable ‘what if’ moments. For all the relentless analysis, the rigorous preparation, the…
A phrase like “Hernán Crespo may just have won the Champions League for AC Milan … Liverpool were all over the place there”, or “They don’t come much simpler than that … Crespo’s…
This feature is part of A Tale of One City The balding man with whisps of thinning grey-speckled hair looked oddly familiar. His assuredness and graceful movement seemed at odds with his companions…
As many in the know have suggested, the legend of Il Grande Torino would not have been quite so “grande” without Ernő Egri Erbstein
NICOLA “COCO” CAMPOLONGO WAS EXECUTED, shot through the head along with his grandfather and an acquaintance. Their bodies were later found in a burnt out Fiat Punto on the outskirts of the southern…
As featured on Guardian Sport A FEW WEEKS AGO, THERE WAS A SUDDEN FRISSON OF ENTHUSIASM surrounding Michael Carrick. Having played for Manchester United for nearly a decade and having been capped by…
The year was 1966; the month, November. American singer-songwriter Little Richard had just performed a brief but energetic gig at L’Olympia in Paris. In the surroundings of one of the French capital’s most…
It was a wet December night at Stadio San Nicola in 1999 as FC Bari played host to Inter Milan in Serie A. Inter were already clear favourites prior to the game as…
Illustration by Soccer Patterns. View more here Just seven short seasons ago, Palermo were the rising stars of calcio. The Sicilian outfit were enriched with young talents such as Edinson Cavani, Javier Pastore,…
Reggiolo is a rural cheese farming town in the heartlands of Italy’s north. Famous not only for its parmesan cheese, but a certain eyebrow-raising, world-class footballer and manager: Carlo Ancelotti. Born the son of…
By the mid-1980s, the landscape of the United Kingdom had become synonymous with mass protests and bitterness. On the political front, the Conservative government fought continued battles on numerous fronts: Arthur Scargill and…
This feature is part of the Academy Way Inter Milan is an Italian institution. Although they may be faltering somewhat in the current Serie A landscape as Juventus and Napoli soar, they remain…
As featured on Guardian Sport ARRIGO SACCHI INSISTS that his comments were misinterpreted and not racist, but many remain unconvinced. “Italian football is now without dignity or pride because it has too many…
On 15 July 2014, A.C. Siena failed to register for the 2014-15 Serie B season and were declared bankrupt after 110 years of history. It was a poignant end for a provincial club…
BEFORE THE PAGEANTRY and red carpet of the FIFA Ballon d’Or much of the pre-award discussion centred around the verity of Manuel Neuer or any German winning the award. Germany won their fourth…
LIKE IT OR LOATHE IT, football and politics are intrinsically linked. If you look to every corner of the globe where football is played, politics always has a role. Be it right at…
UNLIKE THE LANGUAGES of the other major Italian islands, the Venetian dialect considers the word for the sea, mar, to be feminine. Each year, on Ascension Day, the Venetians marry the sea, symbolically…