⚽️🇮🇹 Inter Milan and Juventus battle it out!
👋 Ciao a tutti!
Welcome back to Calcio Weekly, your comprehensive weekly digest of Italian soccer.
We’re landing in your inbox a day later than usual - we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! - and have plenty of updates as we look ahead to Serie A matchday 13 this weekend.
If you’re enjoying the newsletter, 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 ⬇️
🫡 Lega legend Fabio Quagliarella announces retirement
A Serie A legend hung up his cleats for the last time this week. Striker Fabio Quagliarella has announced he has called time on a career that started way back in 1999, and which saw him score 182 goals across 556 Serie A matches.
🇮🇹 The 40-year-old journeyman played for a host of Italian clubs, including Udinese, Napoli, Torino, Juventus and Fiorentina. He was on the books at Sampdoria from 2016 until summer 2023.
🗣️ “I am forced to stop playing. I am a free agent now, but my physical shape is far from acceptable to return on the pitch,” Quagliarella told Sky Italia. “Now, I have time to understand which path I can take.”
🏆 The forward, who also earned 28 national team caps, enjoyed his most successful period with Juve, where he won three Scudetti and two editions of the Supercoppa Italiana.
💫 Quagliarella also enjoyed an annus mirabilis in 2018-19, when he won the Capocannoniere (league top scorer award) and earned the Serie A Goal of the Season award for the second time in his career, thanks to this outrageous backheel…
Fabio Quagliarella Scores Insane Back-heel Volley! | Sampdoria 3-0 Napoli | Top Moment | Serie A
Quagliarella only scored bangers, and he will be missed!
🏆 Inter Milan positioned as title favorites ahead of Derby D’Italia
Serie A makes its triumphant return this weekend with the Derby D’Italia, the long-standing rivalry game between two of Italy’s biggest powerhouses: Juventus and Internazionale (Sunday, 2.45pm ET on Paramount+).
🥊 There’s plenty at stake in this one, with top spot in the league on the line: hosts Juve currently sit in second place, two points behind leaders Inter.
🤓 The game could have big implications in the title race, but according to the stats boffins at Opta, Inter have an 84% chance of winning the Scudetto. Juve are given a 12.3% chance.
Opta/theanalyst.com
🇺🇸 Weston McKennie is a Derby D’Italia doubt, after leaving the USMNT camp with a knee issue. Tim Weah also remains sidelined for The Old Lady, with his return from injury postponed.
🇺🇸 Outside of the Derby D’Italia, there’s better news for Christian Pulisic, who has returned to training after picking up a knock in Milan’s Champions League victory over PSG.
🙌 Italy qualifies for Euro 2024!
It’s official: Gli Azzurri (“The Blues”) will defend their European Championship title in Germany next summer!
🇮🇹 The national team defeated North Macedonia (the team who infamously prevented Italy from reaching the 2022 World Cup) in Rome and followed up with a goalless draw against Ukraine to qualify for Euro 2024 during this international break.
🗣️ “Considering what happened in the recent past with other tournaments, we absolutely had to qualify and it’s not easy to play football when you can feel that pressure breathing down your neck,” said coach Luciano Spalletti. “Now I have the opportunity to really start getting to work.”
📈 In six games in charge, Spalletti has earned three wins, two draws and a solitary defeat (away at England, at the same famous venue where they lifted the Euro 2020 title in the summer of 2021).
💪 Serie A stars were at the fore in this international break, with Inter’s Matteo Darmian, Juventus’ Federico Chiesa, Napoli’s Giacomo Raspadori and Roma’s Stephan El Shaarawy bagging the goals.
🇺🇸 Jesse Marsch sets his sights on Serie A
Coach Jesse Marsch has been without a club since departing Leeds United in February, and the American is apparently interested in becoming a “Mister” (the Italian word for “coach”)…
🏠 According to World Soccer Talk, Marsch is currently living in Tuscany, as his wife recently acquired Italian citizenship.
🗣️ “I feel it would be a massive challenge, but I think also it would be a massive opportunity to try to bring my idea of football here,” Marsch said in a BBC interview. “I think the rewards could be big. I’ve had some conversations with people [in Italy]."
🔄 At the time of publication, there are no open seats for Marsch to take in Serie A, but the league has already seen four managerial changes this season.
✍️ Genoa breakout star signs new contract
Albert Gudmundsson’s first full season in Serie A is going pretty well: the Icelandic midfielder has notched five goals in 12 appearances in the current campaign.
🔏 Genoa have made their move to secure one of the biggest breakout stars of the season so far, by giving the 26-year-old a contract until 2027.
😯 Reports suggest that multiple clubs are interested in luring Gudmundsson away from Il Grifone (“The Griffin”), including Roma, Napoli, West Ham and Aston Villa.
➡️ Up next for Genoa: If you want to see Gudmundsson in action this weekend, tune in at 9am on Sunday (Paramount+) when Genoa visits Frosinone. He’ll be facing fellow rising star Arijon Ibrahimović, who has a goal and an assist to his name after five Serie A appearances.
🇺🇸 Pulisic’s father: “Christian is really happy with the move to Italy”
Last week, Serie A USA staged a youth soccer event in Miami at the Christian Pulisic Stomping Grounds, a facility designed to provide access to soccer for underserved members of the community.
Mark Pulisic speaking to youth soccer players in Miami
Christian Pulisic’s father Mark was in attendance, and exclusively spoke with Calcio Weekly about his son’s progress in Milan. “He really is happy with the move and is enjoying the city,” he said. “His Italian is getting better every day, and he’s working hard with a tutor. He wants to be fluent within a year.
“[Stefano] Pioli likes him, but at the at the level he’s playing at, it’s a case of ‘what have you done for me lately?’ So, he’s fully focused on staying healthy and being at his best.
“We’re very proud of all his accomplishments.”
Youth soccer players training at Miami’s Christian Pulisic Stomping Ground
Speaking with Calcio Weekly at the event, Pulisic’s mother Kelley revealed the moment when the USMNT star first started to fall in love with the beautiful game: it came when the family moved to Oxfordshire, England, as part of her role in a teacher exchange program.
“Outside the school where I was working, there was a hard court with some soccer goals and basketball nets,” she recalls. “Christian was around seven years old, and would play soccer out there for hours every day, typically with older kids.
“It’s where he started to develop his love of the game, and it’s the reason he wanted to start the Stomping Grounds project.”
👋 Join our Baltimore Watch Party!
On Sunday December 3rd, we’ll be at Power Plant Live! in Baltimore to watch Napoli v Inter Milan (2.45pm kick-off).
You’ll have the chance to get your photo taken with the Scudetto trophy, there will be giveaways, and you’ll have the opportunity to hang with us and fellow calcio fans!
If you’re in the area, come join us!
📆 December 3rd
⏰ 2.45pm (doors at 1.45pm)
📍 Power Plant Live!, 34 Market Pl, Baltimore, MD 21202
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If you share this newsletter with 10 friends, we’ll send you a genuine Serie A captain’s armband (as seen above, expertly modeled by the Coppa Italia trophy in our NYC offices).
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🫂 Totti and Spalletti hug it out
Roma legend Francesco Totti embraced Italy coach Luciano Spalletti during a visit to a Rome children’s hospital, dispelling any rumors of bad blood between them.
🤝 The background: During his first spell as Roma manager between 2005-2009, Spalletti and Totti worked in harmony as they won two Coppa Italia trophies. However, when Spalletti returned in 2016, Totti’s game time was limited and fans perceived that the forward had been forced into retirement.
🗣️ “There could be no better opportunity to rediscover each other,” Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia. “Although deep down, in truth, we never argued. We had always respected each other. In an era of conflict, where us adults tend to argue often, finding ourselves here with the children and showing them this hug feels like a message for a brighter future.”
💬 Calcio Conversations
The final few minutes of a game, where a decisive goal may be scored, are referred to as the “Zona Cesarini” (“Cesarini Time”).
🧐 Why? It harks back to the 1930s and the legendary Juventus star Renato Cesarini, who famously scored a lot of goals at the death - several of which helped him land five Serie A titles.
🏎️ Social post of the week: Zlatan is a Ferrari man
Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined the galaxy of stars who were present at last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, and was interviewed by Martin Brundle during one of his iconic pitwalks.
The talismanic Swede - who has won league titles with Inter Milan, Juventus and AC Milan - was asked about his preferred brand of automobile. Of course, there could be only one choice…
🚘 Zlatan has used Ferraris in a metaphorical sense at several points in his career. In 2019, while in MLS, he described himself as a “Ferrari among Fiats” and when referring to his role alongside Lionel Messi at Barcelona, he said: “You don't buy a Ferrari to drive it like a Fiat."
🔙 Reports in Italy suggest that Ibra may be close to returning to AC Milan as an advisor to the club.
📺 This weekend on CBS Sports and Paramount+
Click here for a one-month free trial of Paramount+
Saturday November 25th
Salernitana v Lazio (9am ET)
Atalanta v Napoli (12pm ET)
Milan v Fiorentina (2.45pm ET)
Sunday November 26th
Cagliari v Monza (6.30am ET)
Frosinone v Genoa (9am ET)
Empoli v Sassuolo (9am ET)
Roma v Udinese (12pm ET)
Juventus v Inter Milan (2.45pm ET)
Monday November 27th
Verona v Lecce (12.30pm ET)
Bolgona v Torino (2.45pm ET)
Grazie e arrivederci!
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Ciao ciao!