⚽️🇮🇹 Calcio Weekly interview: Marco Messina
The IFTV Founder and CBS Sports on-air talent speaks to Calcio Weekly about his relationship with Italian soccer as he grew up in Brooklyn, his thoughts on the Serie A title race, and much more.
Hey Marco, what is your earliest Serie A memory?
I was five years old, and I remember my dad waking me up, bringing me downstairs, pulling the chair in the living room right in front of the TV, and being like, “This is what we do on Sundays.” And my mom made espresso and milk, and we're dipping cookies and watching Serie A. I remember going into school and explaining that this is what me and my dad do. Everybody else does this, right? And a lot of the other kids are like, “No, that's not what we're doing!”
Later on, we started going to local Italian cafes in my Brooklyn neighborhood with super old-school Italian guys who were in a basement, having coffee and smoking cigarettes. I'll never forget this one moment when we were sitting in front of a table, and Juventus scored a goal, and the old guys slammed down on the table, and drinks flew everywhere! But yeah, pretty much that was my weekends as a kid.
Was it hard to watch games on broadcast back then?
It was always a struggle. I remember RAI would show one game a week - and you didn’t get to choose. As I got older and went into high school, that was a fire that was burning inside of me as all of my friends were watching the Premier League, which was much more accessible. I always used to think, “You guys don't realize how good Italian soccer actually is!”
So what was the pitch to get your friends to watch Serie A?
Oh my gosh, I pitched everything! We’ve got the history on our side! Your guys have never won seven Champions Leagues! It’s so unpredictable!
In around 2017, when Juventus were dominant, I would talk up Atalanta, as I feel American fans like an underdog story, and usually, they don't want the biggest team that spends the most money to win. Atalanta love to fight against the big dogs. They don’t spend much, and they play really exciting soccer. If they are winning 1-0 or 2-0, they're going to keep going forward, which is, again, typically something that I felt like my friends would like.
If that was the Serie A pitch back then, what would the pitch be today?
Firstly, the title race is so unpredictable. If you look at other top leagues, you already know who's going to win. In Italy, you could ask a dozen Serie A fans their opinion, and you'll get at least three or four different scudetto picks. At the start of the season, all four of us on the CBS Sports desk picked a different winner. That's not us joking around or trying to hype up the league. We all believe in those picks.
I also love the way that anyone can beat anyone in Serie A across the league. I really feel like every single week, I see a match that's an upset. Every single week, I see a team that shouldn't be beating a team or shouldn't be grabbing points from a team, yet they do. And I think our Italian teams in Europe, all across the board, are starting to show how competitive we can be.
Tell us about the origins of IFTV. What made you go from being a fan to becoming part of the media landscape?
We started up when soccer was becoming a big thing early on Twitter and YouTube. And I just started tweeting about Italian soccer on my phone during class. It sounds really bad - tweeting about Serie A in English class! But I quickly became more focused on that than I did on school. And then, as I went to college, the media landscape was shifting, and it became really easy to shoot your own video - you needed just a phone and a headset. I just figured out a way to put stuff on YouTube, filming in my grandpa’s garage, and focused on sharing some really interesting and entertaining storylines coming out of Italy.
These days, are you seeing a lot of growth in support for Serie A - and soccer in general - in the U.S.?
Absolutely, yes. In my high school, I was captain of the soccer team. We had the lowest in popularity in high school. Even the swim team was more popular because they used to win. We were the weird kids. And now I've gone back to my high school, and they tell me that soccer is number one! They’re the popular kids now. It’s so weird how that dynamic has shifted, but I also think I was very lucky to be on the cusp of that change. Because when my dad came to the country, that definitely wasn’t the case.
You’ve traveled to Italy as a fan and a CBS Sports analyst. What's the best stadium atmosphere you’ve experienced?
Nothing beats a full San Siro. I’ll always remember the CBS Champions League crew went to the Milan Derby, and Micah Richards was looking around and saying, “Oh my gosh, I've never seen anything like this.”
I would also say the Stadio Olimpico for a Roma game is crazy. Hours before kickoff, you’ll see Roma fans singing Roman songs - not even songs about their team - just songs about their city. And you see these little kids that are on top of their father's shoulders. You realize that it's about way more than the 90 minutes that's on the pitch.
And, of course, I have to mention Juventus. The Allianz Stadium is beautiful. It's much more modern (the Wi-Fi works a lot better!), but there's something raw and beautiful about a full San Siro and a full Stadio Olimpico.
Who are your favorites to watch from the current crop of Serie A players? Ademola Lookman has been my guy, and I've been saying it for a while. He's so dynamic, and I fall in love with players who can beat a man one-on-one. I think that's what football is about.
Lookman's definitely at the top of my list, but of course, Christian Pulisic has been crazy good with Milan. That’s not just me hyping up an American player - you could argue he has been the most dominant player for one of the most historic sides in Italy.
I’d also spotlight Marcus Thuram. It’s been fantastic to watch his growth to become a number nine and a goal scorer. And he loves to be involved in the play - even when he doesn’t score, he’s always involved in helping the team play better.
Who is your scudetto favorite this season?
My initial pick was Inter, but I've been on a Napoli kick, for sure. They're the team that I love because they finished 10th place last year. They’ve been given a huge jolt by bringing in Antonio Conte. He's my favorite coach in the Serie A. I have followed his career since he was at Siena in Serie B, and I see that he gets the most out of teams. If I had a bad team and I had to choose a coach that could get the most out of this bad team, there's no doubt in the world that it would be Antonio Conte. And you could say that it'll run out of steam in two to three years, and that's fine. But in the moment and in that first year, there's something magical.
How do you reflect on your journey, starting from the moment your dad woke you up at five years old to watch games together to where you are today as one of the most influential voices for the league in this country?
I’ll try not to get too emotional here. Everything my parents and family have passed on to me, I've just tried to live up to in the best way possible. I feel like I am just a mouthpiece for everything that I was taught over my life and all of my influences. And yeah, I feel very lucky and proud. And there are a lot of moments when I put my hand on my heart, and I'm like, “Man, this is crazy.” Be in the moment. Just remember how much you worked to get here.
To be able to share some of the stuff that I’ve been taught makes me the most happy. I'll give you an example: last week, Tutto Sport, one of the biggest newspapers in Italy for sports, put us on the front page for one of the conversations we had about Torino. They literally used my quote in it. It was actually a quote that my grandpa told me: every time Torino would be on TV, he'd be like, “You have no idea how good Torino were. They were like the Barcelona of that time.” When the biggest newspaper in Turin used that quote from my grandpa, it was something that I felt very proud of. My family in Italy sent messages about and bought copies of the newspaper. That's one of the true bright spots about working in this industry and one of the things I want to pass on to my future kids.
For more from Marco, subscribe to IFTV and check out Serie A broadcasts on CBS Sports and Paramount+