It’s no secret that Italians are in love with soccer. Italian boys are raised playing it and watching it on TV with their dads and Italian girls grow to love it, since soccer, in Italy, is all around. Picking a team to support has become so common for Italians to almost seem mandatory and this passion can sometimes even overcome city rivalries and regional boundaries and, sure enough, it’s common for a person who lives in Genoa to support Florence’s local team for example, or for a person from Turin to cheer for the Inter-Milan club. Only if you are a true tifoso, soccer supporter, you’ll make weekly Sunday visits to the stadium to watch the matches or even follow your team when it’s playing in the rival team’s hometown.

The top supporters will then choose to sit in the area of the stadium called curva (the area behind the goal post) in order to have the best spots to cheer for their home team. They will tirelessly support their team’s players with 90+ minutes of choral chanting, screams and whistles and, when things go wrong, they will also boo them with high-pitch hisses and a colorful array of somewhat funny and light-hearted Italian parolacce (bad words).

At the stadium Italians know no boundaries and strangers quickly become friends and start singing and jumping together smiling and hugging each other at every goal being scored…but only if you cheer for the same team that is! When it comes to soccer games, winning becomes a serious business and even members of the same family can become very competitive against one another and scorn each other if they happen to support different teams playing against one another.

   
      photo:Banner:“The heart is in our shoes, Go ‘Sampdoria,’ Charge!”

The Derby is the biggest deal in Italy. The derby is when two teams from the same city compete against each other. The city of Genoa boasts two main teams: ‘Sampdoria’ and ‘Genoa’ football club. During the day of the derby, the city streets are emptied out and the sports bars overflow with people watching the game together. The city during the derby looks deserted and peaceful but this almost supernatural silence can be suddenly broken by a roar of ‘GOOOOOOOAL!’ in case of scoring or by a loud and heartbreaking ‘NOOOOOOOOOO!’ for a miss or a penalty.Italians are so crazy about soccer that the last section in the evening news on TV is devoted to this sport, with special guest interviews dedicated to discuss the latest matches and soccer news.

 

   Soccer players in Italy are the biggest stars. People almost venerate them and young boys dream to become like them. They are the protagonists of gossips and they appear in all the tabloids. Italian soccer supporters also like to show their passion and devotion to their favorite team outside the stadium and therefore there is a wide range of team merchandise available for them: clothing, toys, homeware…and even special events items such as wedding cake toppers or chocolate Easter eggs personalized with the team logo.

   

                                   Although Italians are rarely patriotic and not particularly devoted to the flag, a new sense of nationalistic pride comes to life when the Italian national soccer team plays, especially during the Soccer World Cup, which happens every 4 years. It’s indeed during this time that Italians dust off their Italian flags and come together to cheer for the national team but for this to happen we need to wait for 2018…


  photo:Banner “In every corner of the city: we are always faithful to the team”