Catenaccio N/A

UEFA club competitions have not been kind to Italian clubs recently as victims were made of Lazio and Milan, ousted in style by Ludogorets and Atlético Madrid. European exits are never taken lightly in Italian football, newspapers typically lambaste coach and club choices and fans urge the club president to multiply spending in the transfer market. As of late, however, these premature exits offer opportunities and challenges for the Italian football movement (CONI, FIGC, Lega di Serie A) to reflect on its course. Italian football is on a downward trajectory. Once the Mecca of club football, Serie A was the envy of the footballing world. To play in Serie A alongside Riva, Rivera, Antognoni, Platini, Socrates, Maradona, Van Basten, or Baggio was the dream of any child kicking a ragball in a dusty street. Italy boasted an astronomical UEFA Club Coefficient with an advantage of hundreds of points over chasers Spain and England. Despite the rise in aggregate financial debt, Se...

Few Canadians have ever bent grass blades of Italian soccer fields, and even fewer were born in Canada. Robert Stillo , a 23 year old Mississauga native is living the dream of so many Italian-Canadian Serie A enthusiasts: to play soccer in Italy. Robert is a self-declared "crazy Canuck goalie", currently plying his trade at AC Perugia Calcio . The Grifoni,  once a hotbed of soccer featuring Japanese superstar Hidetoschi Nakata and South Korean Jung-Hwan Ahn , is currently looking to revive past glory and is fighting for promotion in the Lega Pro. Stillo is currently on loan to Perugia, a city he says he's in love with, from none other than Serie A's Parma FC . Robert granted me an interview, in which we talked about his soccer background, his present and his prospects for the future. Tell me about your career in Canada. Which soccer clubs did you play for there and for how long? "Growing up in Mississauga I played for my local club Erin Mi...