Football is the first thing I remember falling madly in love with. My first memories are of my father telling me about La Vecchia Signora’s attacking trio of Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero, and Filippo Inzaghi, whom I happened to catch on Champions League nights. But it wasn’t just Marcello Lippi’s Juve who enchanted my Tuesdays and Wednesdays, there was also Sven-Göran Eriksson’s iconic Lazio of Juan Verón, Siniša Mihajlović, Alessandro Nesta, and Hernan Crespo. Then Carlo Ancelotti’s great Milan of Ricardo Kaká, Manuel Rui Costa, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf, Andriy Shevchenko, and Inzaghi. Luciano Spalletti’s incredibly entertaining Roma of Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi, Alberto Aquilani, and Simone Perrotta. All the way to José Mourinho’s tripletta winning Inter that gloriously triumphed against all odds through catenaccio.
Euro 2000 was the first tournament I watched live, and it remains by far the closest international tournament to my heart, alongside World Cup 2006. Maybe it’s the nostalgia that gives rose tinted glasses, but these two tournaments represent a moment in time that I wish to experience forever.
I retain a special affection for trequartisti, classy midfield maestros, composed defensive midfielders who do their job without much fuss, and poachers who don’t do much else but score goals. But my favorite is always the man wearing a classy suit on the dugout. Mostly he would be Italian like Lippi or Fabio Capello, but almost certainly he would be someone with his name engraved in the fabric of Calcio like Mourinho or Eriksson.
If you find any of the above interesting, then you might enjoy my writing. You’ll — hopefully — find plenty of analysis on present Calcio, while feeling the joy of nostalgia in the pieces about the years past.
