Close your eyes and cast your mind back. There’s a Labour government in the UK, Liam and Noel are filling stadiums, their mortal enemies – Blur – are doing the same, Take That have the girls screaming and one of the European football leagues is dominating with star names and big money. Open your eyes. It’s 2025.
The 1990s came back with a vengeance recently and men of my age can be forgiven for thinking they’re carefree kids again. The sad reality is though, I’ve got rent to pay, a kid to feed and Serie A doesn’t dominate the global football landscape anymore, the Premier League as taken off and my back hurts. There was a time, though, when Serie A ruled the beautiful game and if you’re reading this it’s probable that we share an origin story.
Yes, every Sunday Channel 4 brought Calcio into our living rooms and we got to tune in and watch James Richardson sat outside a café with his espresso and Gazzetta explain to us what the headlines meant before bringing us the latest goals from Serie A. This was magical to me, yes Sky and Sky Sports existed but we couldn’t afford it. My Dad would record Match of the Day for me and take me to Gillingham every now and then but I rarely got to settle in for a full live match of top class players on the telly.
Now, I was born in ’88 so my memory begins from around 1996/97 and the heavyweights of the time. Gazzetta Football Italia was responsible for landing me where I am now as an Inter fan. Those blue and black stripes, reminiscent of the Gillingham kits of the era, were magnificent, I’d never seen anything like the San Siro and how could you not fall in love with a team who had Ronaldo leading the line for them? It could’ve easily been another team, I was fascinated by the power and pace of George Weah, Zizou was dazzling in the midfield for Juventus, Francesco Totti was a poet on the ball and I loved pretty much every player in the late 90s Parma teams.
Italy had stolen my heart from a young age. It was 2013 before I finally made a pilgrimage to the San Siro, Inter were in this weird “banter era” and Serie A was in the middle of a climb down from the best of the best to the rest of the best. Not that Calcio is finished, the current edition I find to be probably the most exciting league in the top 5, if not the highest quality. Anyone who follows The Calcio Blog on Instagram will know I’m there constantly taking in games, but over this series for the Gentleman Ultra I’ll be looking back over the rise to dominance of Italian football during the 90s, the peak of it’s powers in the mid-00s and the gradual decline through the 2010s.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to undertake this and revisit some of my favourite players, kits and matches over the next few months. I hope you’ll stay along for the ride, 8 year old me would be buzzing for this…
