re: Former AC Milan Manager Sacchi says there are too many blacks playing for Italy

First, I'm not defending Sacchi because his old way of thinking is a huge problem in Italy. However, the English media translations of precisely what he said are pretty imprecise.


1) A lot of older, non politically correct, Italians use "di colore" to mean foreigners/immigrants. They mean African but also Indian, Albanian, Eastern European, Chinese etc etc. . .

The more precise translation would not be "black" in English but "people of color" and probably the closest translation would be the connotation many American politicians/pundits try to achieve with "immigrants".


2) The tournament he was watching was the Primavera tournament (or club youth team) where Inter were facing Roma.
Those teams, like in England, have a lot of foreign players that are not even "immigrants".

It has nothing to do with the Italian youth NT setup at all.

This is what he was trying to criticize: that the clubs are training too many 16-19yo players that aren't even eligible for the Italian NT.



Again, I completely disagree with his mode of thinking and his quite incorrect notion that he can know which players are eligible for Italy just by ethnic appearance. I'm sure 50% of the players he was watching were Argentinian nationals instead of Italian but he didn't notice those.

At any rate, it's an old way of thinking that flies in the face of modern national boundaries.


However, the poor, as usual, English media translation turns the discussion to something other than what it is. It's wrong but it's much more similar to an American saying that too many "immigrants" (a thinly veiled Central Americans) are taking advantage of things the country offers and then returning the rewards outside the country.

I think he's inadvertently questioning how Italy has so many black people living there and how they are one-upping the native Italian types in sport?

Good post. Makes sense to me.

Roma is my favorite Italian club. I was in Rome on my honeymoon the day Roma last won the Scudetto. It was a sunday and we were wandering around the streets while no one was out. I was oblivious to the fact that a match was going on until the game was over. The entire city emptied on to the streets and we joined the party. I still have my Roma shirt and a sweet Tottigol #10 winter cap.

quote:

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Roma is my favorite Italian club. I was in Rome on my honeymoon the day Roma last won the Scudetto. It was a sunday and we were wandering around the streets while no one was out. I was oblivious to the fact that a match was going on until the game was over. The entire city emptied on to the streets and we joined the party. I still have my Roma shirt and a sweet Tottigol #10 winter cap.

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That's great. I was living there at the time. The non-stop week long party was crazy. I had an old FIAT 500 at the time and it along with every car of my block got painted red and yellow with tempera paint sometime late that night. Half the shops in my neighborhood closed for the entire week.


And, yeah, one reason all the injuries the season have been so tough to take is that it's probably only this year and next year that Totti can lift another trophy.