Calcio Strano

Picture this. It's the summer of 1995, and the Nottingham Post runs a headline that would go down in club folklore: two words, "It's Baggio!". Roberto Baggio, the Divine Ponytail, was out of contract at Juventus and being linked all over Europe, and Forest fans for a period were genuinely excited believing that their club was about to land him. It turns out, it wasn't Baggio. This is the story of Andrea Silenzi, and his transfer to Nottingham Forest. Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

It’s June of 2014. FC Sion, a Swiss club, proudlyannounces their new manager — a World Cup winner, a legend of Italian football signing a two-year deal. Reporters are told to expect him at the club anytime soon. The funny thing is that he doesn't show up and nobody can reach him. Not his assistant, not the club secretary or president, no one.

For twenty-four hours, Claudio Gentile, a World Cup-winningfootball legend simply vanishes off the face of the earth. This is the story of Claudio Gentile's managerial disappearance. Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

Imagine being a professional footballer, and your surname isVieri. Your father played professionally in Italy and Australia.

Your older brother is Christian Vieri — a World Cup goal machine, a Serie A top scorer, one of the most feared strikers on the planet. And you, Massimiliano Vieri, spend years on Juventus's books, train in preseason and never once play a single minute of Serie A football yet carve out a nice professional lower league career. That's the story of Max Vieri. Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

It's 1983. You're standing under the floodlights of the Stadio Communale in Florence, twenty thousand or so fans and you're there to play centre-back — for the United States of America — and next to a man who is about to get sent off for being, and quote, "too dangerous." That man is Chuck Norris. And playing right alongside him, lacing up his boots like it's nothing out of the ordinary is the lead singer of AC/DC, Brian Johnson. Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

Today we're heading to one of the smallest countries in the world, roughly the size of 62 standard size football pitches, fewer than a thousand residents and the smallest country in the world, both by geographic area and population and yet it has its own football league, its own national team, and, for one brief and slightly bizarre chapter, its own connection to one of Italianfootball's most decorated managers. Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

Let's talk about a haircut that mattered more to a nation than most changes of government.

Roberto Baggio was, for the better part of a decade, defined almost as much by his ponytail as by what he could do with a football.

The ponytail wasn't just a hairstyle.

It was Baggio. It was a brand before there was such a thing in sports marketing.

This is the story of the summer of 97' and when Baggio cut off his divine ponytail, the how and why, the impact one hair cut had and it's supposed whereabouts.

Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

Picture a midfielder who spent over a decade playing in Italy's Serie A, won a Scudetto, two UEFA Cups, played in a World Cup final for Italy and now fast forward to the year 2000, and that same player is running around a cricket pitch in Sydney, Australia.

This is the story of Nicola Berti and how he ended up in Australia's National Soccer League.

Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where your get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

Da, da-da-da-da, daah, daah. You heard it during the World Cup, you’ve probably heard it at a Champions League game.

You’ve probably heard it at a basketball game or even awedding reception, vive gli sposi!

It's one of the most recognizable pieces of music on theplanet — and today, it exists as a football chant thanks to one specific night.

This is the story of how "Seven Nation Army," by a two-piece rock band from Detroit, became football's unofficial anthem — and how it all runs through AC Milan.

Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where your get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

It's the summer of 1986 and Enzo Ferrari gets a phone call asking him to do something he'd never done before, build and manufacture a black Ferrari Testarossa. His reported response was 'Ferrari's only come in red!' but little did he know who was asking the question.

This is the story of Diego Maradona's black Ferrari Testarossa. The most famous car in Naples.

Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where your get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.

In the small town of Serino, Campania, there was once an amateur football team where the entire starting eleven, the substitutes, the coach, the club doctor and club secretary all had the shared the exact same surname.

This is the story of Team De Feo.

Please share the word of Strano, follow the show on Instagram @calcio.strano.podcast, and subscribe where you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and enjoy your Calcio.