Milan

After a typical week of school, our family decided to take a little day trip to Milan on Sunday. I was once again surprised by how close everything is in Italy, and what a luxury it is to have a host of amazing cities within a two-hour radius of Carpi. We arrived in the outskirts of Milan at around 2 o’clock, parked, and took the metro into the city center. One of the coolest things of the day was walking up the stairs from the metro and being immediately greeted by the Duomo. Though it isn’t as big as Notre Dame, the Duomo brought back similar memories. It has that same intense gothic design with lots of jagged external spires, and high vaulted ceilings.

 

For the rest of the afternoon we enjoyed the good weather and the shops for which Milan is famous. First, we went into the official Inter and Milan soccer shops which were full of official and signed paraphernalia. We then made our way into the Ferrari store where Simo bought a new pair of shoes. Our last shopping stop was at Abercrombie and Fitch. The Italians have a slight obsession with the brand, and Antonella and Cate took the chance to enjoy the fragrance-infused store in all of its odiferous brilliance. We capped off the afternoon with a view of the world famous Teatro alla Scala.

To be honest, I was a little bit surprised with Milan. Unlike other typical Italian cities such as Rome and Florence, Milan isn’t brimming with art and historic things to see (Luigi explained that this is partially due to the fact that it was destroyed during WWII). The Duomo was amazing, and the streets lined with high-end shops and restaurants were pleasing to the eye, but it did have the feel more of a commercial rather than a cultural city.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable trip and great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  

 

The Business of Youth Soccer

Last November, Mike Carlson, President of IFX soccer (the company that organized my year abroad) shot some video of Carpi FC training sessions to promote their new Italy Youth Academy Program. Since I am the first player they placed in Italy, they featured me in the video:

In my time playing soccer in Italy, I have also come to realize how different the youth soccer systems are between here and the US. Overall, the system in the US is more fragmented with multiple leagues and governing bodies overseeing youth soccer.   There are generally three categories of organized youth soccer teams in the US: teams that represent one’s town  (school teams as well as town leagues/recreational soccer), club teams (regional teams such as my Lightning club), and the new U.S. Developmental Academy (New York Red Bulls) which was recently formed to better develop male players to compete at the national and international level (not sure what the equivalent is on the girl's side). Unlike the system in Italy, these leagues are generally static and unconnected - you play a season with one team, try to improve, win for bragging rights, and maybe try to get recruited to play in college or for some, the MLS or US national team.  But in Italy, soccer is big business from the adults all the way down to the youngest players. There are no school or college affiliated sports in Italy.  All official and organized soccer is part of one grand scheme and falls under one governing body where there is much at stake.

Carpi FC U19's who beat neighboring Modena 1-0 over the weekend

To understand youth soccer in Italy, it’s helpful to understand the professional soccer structure first.  There are actually close to 600 divisions of “professional” men’s teams that can be generally divided into 8 ability levels.  While there are women’s professional teams with a similar structure as the men’s side, women’s soccer is much less of a consideration with the Italian people, and probably less developed than it is in the US (when my family and classmates heard that my sister and my female friends played soccer, they were really quite surprised). At the top levels of Italian soccer, there are very few divisions, but as you move down the chain, there are numerous parallel divisions based on geography. For instance, Serie A and B (the highest two levels) have only one division each, but Serie C has 2 divisions, Serie D has 9 divisions, etc. This trend continues all the way to the lowest ability level, which has over 200 parallel divisions! These divisions within each ability level are based on geography; the best teams (Serie A and B) have to travel nationally, the middle level teams travel regionally, and the lowest level teams only travel throughout their province. All of these ability levels are connected through a series of relegation and promotion, which I briefly explained before. In short, the best teams of each division move up at the end of the season, whereas the worst teams move down. What makes this one giant connected system cool is that theoretically any local team could eventually work its way up, win the Serie A, and be the best team in all of Italy! The system works for the “first” team or adult team of every club, as well as all of the subsequent youth teams. So for example, if your club’s first team is in the fifth division, your youth teams will also be in the equivalent of the fifth division. Carpi FC is a Serie B team, so the Carpi youth team that I am training with competes in the top youth league, or the “Nazionali” league, against youth teams of other Serie A and Serie B teams.  

Carpi FC youth team

Beyond the actual system of Italian youth soccer, the culture is also very different. Though the lower levels are very similar to soccer in the US where it is played for fun and to improve, once you start to arrive at the higher levels of Italian soccer, there is very little sense of playing for fun. The players of youth teams are treated as and are expected to act as professionals.  It’s business. Starting at a young age, players sign contracts with professional club teams. With the rights to these young players, clubs can now sell them, loan them, or develop them within their own squad. This results in players being sent all over Italy starting at a young age. For example, on my team, there are very few players from Carpi itself. There are players from Turin, Milan, Rome, Reggio Calabria, Bari, and even one who is originally from Bosnia. These players are living with host families in Carpi, and who knows where they will end up next year. While they go to school, many do not attend “Liceo” or higher-level academic schools such as the one I attend, and instead attend more vocational-type schools. And as with the adult teams, these players are constantly being traded or loaned, and therefore move around. There is also a steady stream of new players “trialing” for roster spots throughout the year. Just this past week at practice, there were two new players, one from Bologna and one from southern Italy, who were trying to earn a spot on the Carpi U17 team for the rest of the season. And to date, there have been upwards of 15 players who have had trials with my team.

At the end of the day, soccer in Italy, even at the youth levels, is much more serious. This system obviously has major drawbacks and consequences, but is a huge part of why men’s soccer in Italy has been so successful.

Four Months

After a great Christmas break, I came back down to earth a bit this past week.  It was tough getting back into the routine, especially knowing that I have a good 3.5 months of school before the Easter break. In school, we picked-up right where we left off.  We are continuing to study ancient Greek art in Art History, and have finally started Socrates in Philosophy. Also coming up this semester is Economics, and we are transitioning out of the Middle Ages in History class. But just like before break, my hardest class is still Italian Literature. The combination of complex literary concepts, Old Italian, and advanced Italian grammar make this class particularly difficult. We are continuing to read the opening Cantos of Inferno, and Dante is now approaching the entrance to Hell. I find this quite fitting.

After four months here, I can tell my Italian is getting better and better. I feel more comfortable speaking, and my writing has improved to the point where I can write more than just basic sentences. Another funny tidbit is that during the break, my family told me that they heard me talking in my sleep in Italian! I can’t honestly say that I remember dreaming in Italian, but apparently I speak it in my sleep.

It was nice to get back to playing soccer with Carpi this week. I have been enjoying my time with them so far, and the team is hoping to get a few more results this second half of the season. I’m also hoping that within the next month, I’ll get my player card with Virtus, and can start playing games.

AC Milan's infamous Mario Balotelli 

But despite a tough week back to school, I had an incredible experience Sunday night - the Sassuolo vs. AC Milan game. It was a special Sunday night game being aired on primetime television (even in the US). Sassuolo has definitely been struggling this season, but faired relatively well in their games against top opponents. They were able to draw away-from-home against Roma and Napoli, and Lazio at home, but lost big against Inter Milan and Juventus. The stadium was almost completely full for the game, and the fans weren’t disappointed. Sassuolo went down 2-0 in the opening 13 minutes and it was looking like it could be another long night for them. But rather uncharacteristically, they were able to take a 3-2 lead before the half, thanks to 19-year-old Domenico Berardi’s hat-trick. Two minutes into the second half, Berardi got his fourth goal of the game to make the score 4-2. And after an impossibly long final ten minutes in which Milan scored a goal and hit the post twice, Sassuolo held on for only their fourth victory of the season. It was the best game I’ve ever seen in person, and no doubt one of the best I’ve ever watched period. I’ve never experienced that amount of pure joy when a team scores a goal in my entire life. And at the end of the game, all the Sassuolo fans at the stadium were jumping and singing a song that translates to: “He who doesn’t jump is a Milanista (fan of Milan).” It was a historic win for Sassuolo, and Domenico Berardi, who became the youngest player to score four goals in a Serie A game. And to add insult to injury for Milan, their manager was fired the next day.

 

All in all, it had to be one of, if not the most exciting moments of my experience in Italy so far. 

Chamonix

I hope that everyone had a great holiday break! I was lucky enough to spend the second half of my break skiing in the French Alps. We stayed with family friends in a small town close to Chamonix called Les Houches for 5 days and enjoyed the fresh snow and great weather. Les Houches sits in the shadow of Mont Blanc (the tallest mountain in Europe), so as you can imagine, the scenery was spectacular.  There was no better place to experience the scenery than on top of the ski slopes. It was a breath taking experience to get off the chairlift and see Mont Blanc towering to one side and the whole valley splayed out beneath you on the other. After experiencing this view for the first time, I realized that the skiing itself was just the cherry on top. We skied at a smaller family-friendly mountain that was a five minute drive from the house but is home to the famous Kandahar World Cup ski run. I skied with our friend Paolo for most of the time while Cate skied with an instructor and Luigi. It was Cate’s first year skiing and she picked it up incredibly quickly. Simo decided to hold out on skiing but said that he would try snowboarding next year. We lucked-out and got perfect skiing weather for the week; it was in the 30’s and 40’s with blue skies, and on the second day we got a good half-foot of fresh powder. 

Tomorrow, it’s back to school and soccer....