Italia Eliminata
Surprise
I was a little bit surprised to see El Shaarawy in the line-up. In the last 20 minutes of the game against Croatia, when Spalletti chose to send in Zaccagni instead of Stephan, I thought that was the end for him, finally getting the chance to represent the country yet making no appearance. Spalletti’s decision turned out to be perfect, as Zaccagni saved the day, but it did not prevent the delayed humiliation today.
Twelve Years
There’s a meme online when Shaarawy was called for EURO.
On the left was the young “Il Faraone” that I fell in love with when I first started following football seriously. Sadly, he did not achieve what was expected to a “Golden Boy”. During those year, him, Milan, and probably us, all had our ups and downs. In 12 years, one turns into a neatly-groomed experienced man from the young cocky wonderkid with the Mohican haircut.
Career
Shaarawy leaving Milan was one of the saddest things I felt in my middle school years. His career was quite plain after that. Having settled in Roma for years, he finally became a veteran of the eternal city, and no one will ever expect him to be a Milan legend one day. The nickname, Il Faraone, given by his being part-Egyptian, was forgot and later gloriously sticked on the true Egyptian star, once his teammates in Roma, Mo Salah. Interestingly, Shaarawy did consider representing Egypt instead of Italia: two Pharaohs on the wings, just imagine that.
He only got three professional trophies in his career so far, and surprisingly two of them are in China: the Supercoppa with Milan won in Beijing, and the Chinese FA Cup during his short spell with Shanghai Shenhua.
EURO 2020 e 2024
Anyway, back to Italia. Many would say that the victory three years ago at EURO 2020 was just a irregularity of this extremely mediocre team in the past decade. Mancini performed the wonder, and could not hold it any longer. Downgrade in the center backs (no BBC anymore, if Acerbi was available today, that would have made a difference), terrible wing backs (as a Milan fan, I am so confused that why Calabria is so consistently left out by the coach), Scudetto-winning midfield yet without no true playmaker, and sub-bar attacking line (only Chiesa doing something, and sadly Berardi is absent).
Nonetheless, I enjoy and truly miss the summer of 2021, watching the passionate Azzurri fighting. Those nights in Roma, with the large screen in Viale Pola, with the classmates and professors shouting L’Inno di Mameli, with friends in Latin America, with her…
The glory, the joy, the pride of wonderkids, all long gone. Let’s treasure those memories, and try to bring some more, shall we?