⚽️🇮🇹 A record-breaking comeback, USMNT updates & more!
Ciao a tutti!
Welcome back to Calcio Weekly, your comprehensive weekly digest of Italian soccer.
In this edition, we’re looking at the injury issues facing U.S. stars, we’re celebrating Victor Osimhen’s Ballon d’Or rankings achievement, we’re looking back at an all-time classic comeback, we’re finding out why Italians call their coach “mister,” and much more.
Plus, we’re giving away an Inter Milan home jersey to one lucky subscriber!
If you’re enjoying Calcio Weekly, share it with a friend using the link below. If you refer 10 friends, you’ll become a Calcio Weekly Capitano and we’ll send you a genuine money-can’t-buy Serie A captain’s armband ⬇️
🤯 Cagliari’s record-breaking comeback!
Going into the weekend rock bottom of Serie A, Cagliari fans might have expected their first win of the season to elude them when they were 3-0 down in the 71st minute. However, they ended up pulling off one of the most stunning turnarounds in recent soccer history, emerging 4-3 victors!
CAGLIARI-FROSINONE 4-3 | HIGHLIGHTS | Unreal scenes in Sardinia | Serie A 2023/24
😱 The Sardinian side started their comeback in the 72nd minute via a Gaetano Oristanio strike, which was followed by Antoine Makoumbou four minutes later. Substitute Leonardo Pavoletti completed the incredible comeback with a brace in the 95th and 97th minutes.
😲 No team in Serie A history had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit after the 70th minute of a game. The result lifted Cagliari off of the bottom of the table, surpassing Pippo Inzaghi’s Salernitana.
🗣️ Cagliari’s manager knows a thing or two about against-the-odds success: Claudio Ranieri masterminded Leicester City’s highly unlikely Premier League title win in 2015-16. He told Sky Sport Italia: “This is what we are, we make incredible mistakes, but this team also has an immense heart and we’re proving that in Serie A too. This side never gives in and we are so happy to have turned around a game that seemed to be over.”
😂 In the moment, Cagliari’s social team couldn’t summon find the words to sum up the winning goal…
👏 Victor Osimhen makes Ballon d’Or history
Lionel Messi headlined the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony on Monday by claiming the top prize for the eighth time, but it was also a historic night for reigning Serie A champion Victor Osimhen.
8️⃣ The prolific striker finished eighth in the overall Ballon d’Or rankings, making him the only Napoli player ever to finish inside the top 10, and the highest-ever ranking Nigerian.
🇮🇹 Three other Serie A stars earned a place within the Top 30 of the rankings: Osimhen’s Napoli teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia finished 17th, and Inter’s Lautaro Martinez and Nicolo Barella placed 20th and 27th respectively.
🤓 Did you know? The Ballon d’Or is decided by a panel consisting of one journalist from each of the top 100 ranked FIFA nations. The voting criteria are: individual performance in the previous season; team success during the previous season; and player behavior and fair play during the current season.
➡️ Up next for Osimhen and Napoli: The Neapolitans visit bottom-of-the-league Salernitana on Saturday (10.00am ET on Paramount+), where they have recorded shutout wins in both their previous visits.
👕 Win an Inter Milan Jersey!
As previously noted, the Nerazzurri (“Black and Blues”) head into the weekend at the summit of Serie A. To celebrate, we’re giving away a home jersey to one lucky Calcio Weekly subscriber!
To be in with a chance of winning, simply email calcioweekly@legaseriea.it with the name of your all-time favorite Inter player. We’ll draw the winner at random and announce it in next week’s newsletter.
In bocca al lupo!
🇺🇸 Pulisic potentially out of action
USMNT star Christian Pulisic set up AC Milan’s opening goal against Napoli on Sunday, but was replaced by Luka Romero in the second half. Coach Stefano Pioli has revealed it was a precautionary measure, as the American had picked up a minor injury.
🗣️ Speaking with DAZN, Pioli said: "Pulisic felt a twinge in the adductor and it was not worth the risk there, even if he was having a great game."
🩼 La Gazzetta dello Sport suggests Pulisic could be rested for Saturday’s home game against Udinese (3.45pm ET on Paramount+), with a potential return for next week’s Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain.
💫 The 25-year-old has enjoyed a sensational debut season in Serie A, with four goals and two assists from 10 games. It’s a significant upturn in productivity on last season, where he notched a goal and an assist in 24 Premier League games.
🤕 Tim Weah in race for USMNT fitness
Pulisic isn’t the only American in Italy spending time on the physio table right now: Juventus has confirmed Tim Weah is sidelined with a thigh injury.
⛑️ Following Juve’s 1-0 win over Verona at the weekend, where Weah was substituted at half time, the club has announced the midfielder picked up a “low-grade lesion of the semitendinosus of the right thigh.” (And yes, we were also today years old when we learned semitendinosus is a muscle in the back of the thigh. Every day is a school day.)
😬 The injury is bad news for USMNT fans, as the 23-year-old is now in a race for fitness for the upcoming CONCACAF Nations League games against Trinidad & Tobago on November 16th and November 20th.
➡️ Up next for the Bianconeri (the “white and blacks”): Juventus travel to face Fiorentina on Sunday (2.45pm ET on Paramount+), knowing they will go top with a win, if current leaders Inter Milan are defeated on their trip to Atalanta.
🫡 In better news for U.S. fans: Weston McKennie is likely to play a prominent role in the game in Florence, given his excellent recent performances as both a wingback and central midfielder.
🎃 Serie A stars get into the Halloween spirit!
Ever wondered what Gigi Donnarumma would look like as a pirate? Or how Piotr Zielinski would suit a Frankenstein makeover? Wonder no more! In honor of spooky season, several Serie A stars gotten into the festive spirit, including this terrifying Juo…
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🥮 Who will eat the panettone?
🇮🇹 The CBS/Paramount+ crew were able to give a very practical demonstration of an Italian idiom (and a celebration of the culture that we champion with our Made In Italy initiative) during the most recent match day, thanks to Brooklyn bakery Settepani.
👋 When Italians ask if a manager will eat the panettoni, they are asking whether the person in question will be dismissed before the Christmas holiday (when the delicious sweet bread is traditionally eaten).
🧐 Paolo Zanetti (Empoli), Paulo Sousa (Salernitana) and Andrea Sottil (Udinese) have already qualified for panetonne consumption… but will anyone else join them?
📺 Serie A sets new viewership record
More people are watching Serie A than ever before. Over 6.2 million fans watched last weekend’s games on domestic Italian broadcasts, according to figured reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The broadcast record broke the previous record of 6.1 million viewers, which was set in the previous match week.
The most popular game of the record-breaking round was Inter’s 1-0 win over Roma (1.7 million viewers), which makes it the second-most watched game of the season, behind Juventus’ blockbuster 1-0 win at Milan, which featured four USMNT stars (1.98 million viewers).
💬 Calcio Conversations
Did you know? Italians refer to the team’s head coach using the English word ‘Mister’.
🤷 Why? It dates back to the early 20th century and coach William Garbutt, who arrived at Genoa in 1912 before managing Roma, Napoli, Milan and the Italian national team.
🧔🏻♂️ Garbutt is regarded as a true pioneer of calcio, whose legend lives on through this moniker. So that’s the Mister mystery solved!
🎂 Happy Birthday Juventus!
The Bianconeri (“White and Blacks”) put 126 candles on their cake on Wednesday while celebrating the 126th anniversary of their foundation.
🏫 Juve were formed on November 1, 1897 by students from the Massimo d'Azeglio Lyceum school in Turin.
🏆 The Old Lady has since become Italy’s most successful team, with 36 league titles, 14 Coppa Italia wins and two European Cups to their name.
🗣️ The club released an emotive statement to capture the moment…
“Close your eyes for a few seconds. Think about what one hundred and twenty-six years of Italian football heritage means.
“Rewind the tape, letting yourself be overcome an emotional sensation you have experienced firsthand, or that perhaps you have read in a history book of our magnificent sport.
“Where were you when…
“And you can finish this sentence by thinking of the many great nights, of the shouts of joy after the countless victories, of that hand you held tightly while the decisive penalty kick was taken, of how loudly your heart beat as the teams entered onto the pitch.
“Or perhaps, thinking of the smile of the supporter sat next to you at the stadium, of the tears of joy for that victory that was a long time coming, of that last-second goal in a match that seemed cursed.
“Can you feel them, those cries, those tears, those smiles?
“Make these emotions yours, and now open your eyes again: today is birthday of our club, of the reason for all this, of the reason why every time that magic is renewed, as if it were the first.
“Today is Juventus’ birthday. Happy birthday to all of us!”
💍 Social post of the week: She said yes!
Congrats to Roma forward Paulo Dybala, who proposed to his partner Oriana Sabatini at the Trevi Fountain this week…
And yes, that is Dybala’s former teammate, Atletico Madrid striker Alvaro Morata, providing nearby applause!
📺 This weekend on CBS Sports and Paramount+
Click here for a one-month free trial of Paramount+
Friday
Bologna v Lazio (3.45pm ET)
Saturday
Salernitana v Napoli (10am ET)
Atalanta v Inter Milan (1pm ET)
AC Milan v Udinese (2.45pm ET)
Sunday
Verona v Monza (6.30am ET)
Cagliari v Genoa (9am ET)
Roma v Lecce (12pm ET)
Fiorentina v Juventus (2.45pm ET)
Monday
Frosinone v Empoli (12.30pm ET)
Torino v Sassuolo (2.45pm ET)
Grazie e arrivederci!
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Calcio Weekly.
Feel free to share it with your friends and send us any feedback at calcioweekly@legaseriea.it. Ciao ciao!