The reason for this topic stems from my interest and passion
for sports. Ever since I was a
little kid, my whole life revolved around sports. Therefore, the topic that most intrigued me when researching
the African Diaspora and Italy are the impacts that African immigrants have on
the sporting world in Italy.
One
of the most prominent African athletes in Italy is a soccer player named Matteo
Ferrari. Matteo had not lived in
Italy his entire life. He was born
in 1979 in Algeria and lived there for about 3 years of his childhood. His father is Italian but his mother is
Guinean. The family picked up and
left to start their new lives in 1983, in a city located in Northern Italy
called Ferrara. He began to play
soccer at a very young age, and was dominated competition. By just the age of 16, Matteo Ferrari
was playing professionally for a club in Italy. I find this to be an extraordinary feat for two
reasons. The first obviously is
his age, but the second is because he was one of the only black players in the
entire league. He had to deal with
a lot of racism in his early career, and struggled because of it. Things did get better for Ferrari; he
was selected to be apart of the 2000 and 2004 Italian Olympic soccer team. The dilemma he faced in this situation was
that he also qualified to play for the Guinea soccer team. Ferrari chose to play for Italy, which
in my opinion symbolized his feelings of finally belonging in the Italian
league as a black soccer player.
Ferrari
continued to play soccer in Italy and eventually found his way into Major
League Soccer. He is currently
playing for the Montreal club, where he is a starting defender. I feel that although not
internationally known as a top player, he is still incredibly successful. He paved the way for other black
Italians to succeed in a predominantly white soccer league.
Sources
"Defender Matteo Ferrari joins the Impact in California". impactmontreal.com/en (Official Site of the Montreal Impact). 14 February 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
"Know a player of African origin?". BBC News. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
