From Viareggio to Serie A top scorer, the boom of Éder

Photo zimbio.com

Most Italian football fanatics were awaiting for the likes of Gonzalo Higuaín, Mauro Icardi and Edin Džeko on the top of the list of Serie A scorers – still, after two match days, they have not fulfilled such expectations. With already 4 goals netted in, almost surprisingly, it is Sampdoria’s Éder to hold the capocannoniere award.

The Brazilian-born forward marked the beginning of the 2015-16 season with a comfortable brace in a home game against newly-promoted Carpi. But none could predict two more goals in as many minutes who helped Sampdoria to accomplish a sensational comeback from a 2-0 gap at Napoli.

The Carnivalesque quit of Viareggio from Lega Pro

Photo courtesy of Mauro Pucci

In a town particularly renowned for a nationwide famous Carnival, the dismal fall of the local football club could not be anything but grotesque. The fans of Viareggio, the football team based in the homonym seaside resort in Tuscany will hardly forget what occurred in this cruel summer. The club who performed in Lega Pro Prima Divisione, the third tier of Italian football, over the last lustrum were not admitted to the next season because of a controversial bank guarantee. Meanwhile, the new presidency was signing even ex Serie A footballers and pledging promotion to Serie B in just three years. Now, they have to restart from the very bottom of regional amateur leagues.

The Zidane-Materazzi Incident Becomes a Bronze Statue

Photo Simone Pierotti

Football fans have always gazed at monuments dedicated to strikers as well as to goalkeepers, mainly outside the stadium of the team that mostly marked their career. Probably, they have never seen a statue representing a foul or a goal celebration, though. They could not imagine that a bronze sculpture depicting the famous Zidane-Materazzi incident at the 2006 World Cup final now stands in central Piazza del Duomo in Pietrasanta, a 25,000-inhabitant town on the coast in northern Tuscany.

Mario Gómez, or the second Renaissance in Florence

At the end of the 1990s, Florence-based club Fiorentina were a prominent side in Italian Serie A. They qualified for the Champions League and were consistently listed among the favourites for the Scudetto. Renowned videogames company Nintendo was their sponsor, with a smiling Super Mario standing out on the scoreboard. More than a decade later, another Super Mario may lead Fiorentina to the hardest, final stage – win the league. The recent signing of Germany international Mario Gómez, 28, from European champions Bayern Munich is exciting home fans, particularly rhapsodised by the idea of becoming Juventus’ major antagonists.