Today was going to be the start of a ramping up of World Cup news seeing as we are now in a World Cup year. But there is time for one more special story.
Aston Villa won 5-0 today against third-placed, giant-killing Bristol City.
As good as that sounds, that is not it.
This is with thanks to a friend for bringing it up. The unfortunate, emotional, sad story of Fabio Quagliarella. He was in the news last Saturday when he scored two injury time penalties in Sampdoria's 2-0 win over SPAL. But this story wasn't about last minute winners.
The former Italian international grew up watching the great Diego Maradona lead his beloved local team, Napoli, to heights of football greatness that the city and it's passionate fans had never seen before. Quagliarella dreamed of captaining Napoli one day. It took a while but at the age of 26, in 2009, he signed for Napoli and it seemed like his football, and personal, dream had come true.
It turned out to be a nightmare and after a year he was sold to Juventus and instantly branded a traitor by the whole of Naples for going to their bitter rivals. It was especially hard to take for the fans after Quagliarella had declared his love for Napoli and his desire to spend the rest of his career there. It looked like he was just another footballer tempted by money over loyalty.
It was only in March of last year that the truth came out and he could reveal the truth for his, what turned out to be, heartbreaking departure. He was terrorized by a stalker who turned out to be a local policeman, Raffaele Piccolo who Quagliarella thought was helping him deal with a password issue on his phone. Quagliarella and his family befriended Piccolo, and invited him into their home to help the family deal with the stalker. Quagliarella received letters accusing him of being a paedophile, of working with the local mafia and being a drug dealer. His father and him were threatened with being shot or their house bombed.
Finally, Piccolo was found out, partly by Quagliarella's father, and last year was jailed for four years and eight months. Quagliarella had since moved on from Juventus to Torino and now Sampdoria. At the age of 35 the chances of him returning to Napoli as a player are slim. But he is now welcome back in Naples, no longer a traitor but a victim.
And his city has love for him again, and support. On March 13th the Napoli ultras hung a banner at the start of their league match against Crotone. It read:
"You’ve lived through hell with enormous dignity. We will embrace you again, Fabio, son of this city.”
This is with thanks to a friend for bringing it up. The unfortunate, emotional, sad story of Fabio Quagliarella. He was in the news last Saturday when he scored two injury time penalties in Sampdoria's 2-0 win over SPAL. But this story wasn't about last minute winners.
The former Italian international grew up watching the great Diego Maradona lead his beloved local team, Napoli, to heights of football greatness that the city and it's passionate fans had never seen before. Quagliarella dreamed of captaining Napoli one day. It took a while but at the age of 26, in 2009, he signed for Napoli and it seemed like his football, and personal, dream had come true.
It turned out to be a nightmare and after a year he was sold to Juventus and instantly branded a traitor by the whole of Naples for going to their bitter rivals. It was especially hard to take for the fans after Quagliarella had declared his love for Napoli and his desire to spend the rest of his career there. It looked like he was just another footballer tempted by money over loyalty.
It was only in March of last year that the truth came out and he could reveal the truth for his, what turned out to be, heartbreaking departure. He was terrorized by a stalker who turned out to be a local policeman, Raffaele Piccolo who Quagliarella thought was helping him deal with a password issue on his phone. Quagliarella and his family befriended Piccolo, and invited him into their home to help the family deal with the stalker. Quagliarella received letters accusing him of being a paedophile, of working with the local mafia and being a drug dealer. His father and him were threatened with being shot or their house bombed.
Finally, Piccolo was found out, partly by Quagliarella's father, and last year was jailed for four years and eight months. Quagliarella had since moved on from Juventus to Torino and now Sampdoria. At the age of 35 the chances of him returning to Napoli as a player are slim. But he is now welcome back in Naples, no longer a traitor but a victim.
And his city has love for him again, and support. On March 13th the Napoli ultras hung a banner at the start of their league match against Crotone. It read:
"You’ve lived through hell with enormous dignity. We will embrace you again, Fabio, son of this city.”
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