Valentino Rossi is a name synonymous with excellence on the motorbike track. Born in 1979, Rossi is already a legend in his sport and has shown a great talent for handling motorbikes from a very early age. Rossi's true debut in the World Championship Class 125 arrived in 1996, when he won his first race. A year later the racer joined the Aprilia team and won his first world title. In 1998 Rossi started racing in the 250 class and that year he would arrive second, after teammate Loris Capirossi.
Giacomo Agostini is a legend in Italy for having won the most motorbike championships in history: a total of 15. These astonishing result arrived after winning 123 races. These numbers are doubly astonishing when one realizes that he raced in more than one category (and competed in more than one during the same season).
Giovanni Trapattoni is a legend. He is the most successful club coach in history, once the coach of the Italian national team and now, even when he is over 70, still going. Today Trapattoni coaches the Irish national team, quite an achievement for a man who is probably as Italian as you can get.
Edoardo Bosio was a textile trader born in Turn in 1864. After receiving a diploma in accounting Bosio went to work for a British company in the textile trade. While living in England the Italian was exposed to the British love of a sport called football (soccer) and, when he returned to Turin in 1887 he brought his memories of green English fields and leather balls with him. At the time the balls were mysteries to Italians, but Bosio believed that the sport of soccer could very well spread throughout his home country.
Carlo Ancelotti is one of the most gallant figures in Italian soccer. Born in Parma, he became a professional soccer player and exploded while playing for Rome. After two major injuries Ancelotti was able to recover his full body capabilities and turn into a fantastic midfielder. With Roma he won an Italian championship, and then moved on to A.C. Milan where he was part of one of the best teams ever assembled. Most soccer fans can still recall one of his great goals, in a historic game that A.C. Milan won 5-0 over Real Madrid.
The decade of the 1980s began with two major shifts in Italian football: the opening up of the game to foreign players and a gambling scandal that rocked the nation. Serie A was embroiled in turmoil when many major players and teams were involved in a scandal about selling games, which led to trails and many players ending up disqualified. Teams like A.C. Milan and Lazio were removed from the first division and sent to second division Serie B.
Alberto Tomba is the best skier Italy has ever had with an astonishing winning record of three gold and two silver Olympic medals, and two Gold and two Bronze World Championship medals. However, his best achievements came from from the World Cup, where Tomba scored 50 victories and a total of nine season world cups, including one Overall. Tomba brought interest back to skiing and TV ratings went very high every time he raced. That interest started to decline after his retirement.
The Italian national football team--"La Nazionale" or "gli Azzurri"-- is the most important sports team in Italy and has been one of the most followed teams since the creation of modern sports. The head coach of the team is called the "Commissario Tecnico" or technical commissioner. In the history of the Italian national team there have been a total of 22 coaches, each with their own history and story. Some have failed to bring success to Italy while others have become true legends and icons in Italian culture.
The inaugural Formula One Grand Prix took place in 1950 and was won by an Italian driver, Nino Farina, who was driving an Alfa Romeo. Italian auto giant Ferrari is the only team to have participated to every single season, winning 215 races and more championships than any other team. These numbers clearly show that Italy and Formula One go a long way back. For many years Italy was actually able to host two races in the same season, one in Monza--the traditional home of the Italian Grand Prix--and another one in Imola, at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit.
Fulvio Bernardini became coach of the national team after Valcareggi blew it in 1974 World Cup. Bernardini was a man with strong skills and great achievements, however, he didn't do much for the national team and in 1977 his coaching job was given to Enzo Bearzot.
Italian tennis has always had a bittersweet flavor. It has never fully developed into a powerful movement although it has garnered some extraordinary results, especially when the male and female national teams are involved in the Davis and the Federation Cups. Beginning in 1922, Italy participated every year in the main Davis Cup World group until the year 2000, the only country able to pull off such a feat. Sadly, it has not qualified since.
Two British gentlemen out of Milan, Italy, founded this glorious football team in 1899. The traditional colors of the jersey are red and black, and the logo is the devil. More than for its marketing design, Milan is impressive for its amazing winning history, domestically and especially internationally: 17 Italian titles, seven Champions Leagues (second only to Spanish legend Real Madrid), three Intercontinental cups, one World Cup for clubs, five UEFA Super Cups, and the list goes on. Some of the best players played for this team and some of the best coaches trained it.
Alex or "Pinturicchio" is one of the greatest players that wore the Juventus jersey and is the one holding the record of most scored goals, passing another legendary player: Giampiero Boniperti. Ironically, it was Mr. Boniperti, who brought a very young Del Piero from Padova to Juventus, to be the substitute to Roberto Baggio. At that time Baggio was the undisputed captain of the team and Del Piero was supposed to sit on the bench and come in to fill in. History spoke very differently.
Juventus, the Old Lady, is a professional Italian football club based in Turin. It is probably the team both most loved and most hated in all of Italy, and it has the most victories. It is also surrounded by myth and controversy,.and has its own style.
Indeed, 'Juventus style' is a term commonly used by the Italians and for decades it meant a way of handling the media, the team's image, and its overall behavior on the soccer field. That lasted for over a century until 2006 when the Juventus style collapsed. Like a Phoenix the club was called to get its act together and be reborn from its own ashes - and it did.
Chievo is a small neighborhood right outside of Verona in Veneto. Less than a decade ago it became famous when, in one of the most amazing underdog stories of Italian soccer, its Cinderella team was able to reach Serie A, the top league, and after that to carry its game beyond any believable expectations. Chievo dominated the first part of their very first season and defeated some of the best teams, including Inter Milan. Their coach was Gigi Delneri and midfielder Eugenio Corini led the team, but their real strength was the re-introduction of the sidelines Eriberto and Manfredini.
Enzo Bearzot was never a tremendous soccer player, but he managed to play at a professional level for many years mainly with Torino, where he was the captain and even capped one presence for the national team. He was following a very static and bureaucratic career within the Italian soccer federation when he was appointed coach of the Italian Soccer National team, the most important team in Italian sports. After they qualified for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, he made it very clear that he wanted to have a fresh team made up of young talent.
Italy is a nation that lives and breathes soccer, appropriately, it also holds the second spot for most World Cups won. Ever. The World Cup, of course, is the single most important sporting event on the planet--held every four years and watched by billions.
Italy's World Cup wins have been spread out to say the least, with the national team triumphing in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006. Twice, Italy was a runner up in the tournament and both times, in 1970 and 1994, they lost to Brazil, the current title holder for most World Cup wins.
In 1980, Italian soccer experienced a black period when it was embroiled in a scandal about gambling. Many thought that those dark times were over, ended by the World Cup win of 1982 and the advent of more professional athletes and team officials. They were wrong. Right before the World Cup of 2006 a major scandal shook Italian soccer right to its very core, changing the landscape in a very dramatic way.
While many might not know it, basketball and the NBA are a big presence in Italian culture. After soccer, basketball is the most watched and covered team sport in Italy, and now Italian players like Gallinari, Bargnani and Belinelli (of the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Hornets, respectively) are finding their way to the NBA from the Italian basketball league. Domestic basketball is also popular in Italy with teams scattered in cities like Milan, Rome, Treviso, Pesaro, Cantu, Varese and Siena, currently the best team in the league.
![History of the Italian](http://www.lifeinitaly.com/files/imagecache/small/veronello.com_.jpeg "Diego Armando Maradona (Photo from <a href="http://www.veronello.com">www.veronello.com</a>)")
![Soccer National Team Part II:](http://www.lifeinitaly.com/files/imagecache/small/calciopro.com_.jpeg "Cesare Prandelli (Photo from <a href="http://www.calciopro.com">www.calciopro.com</a>)")
