Swiss-Italian exchange
Italy gave us the pizza and sent their greatest footballers to us in Switzerland. And us? After all, we made their "calcio" great!
216 Italians have played in Switzerland's top league to date. In today's Dieci Challenge League, there were even 307. No other country exported anywhere near as many footballers to our championship as our southern neighbor. Among them were even stars who were almost as popular in Italy as pizza.
There was Marco Tardelli, for example. The midfielder was a defining figure in Italy's 1982 World Cup victory, and the images of exuberant jubilation after his goal in the final against Germany went around the world. Five years later, this icon actually played for FC St. Gallen. At the same time, Giancarlo Antognoni was on the pitch for league rival Lausanne, and he too was an important part of the 1982 world championship team! If you try to imagine how spectacular these transfers were, just imagine the French world champions Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann in the St. Gallen or Lausanne jerseys today ...
Switzerland has also been able to attract world stars in more recent times. Gennaro Gattuso, a two-time Champions League winner with Milan, joined FC Sion in 2012. His teammate in the 2006 World Cup title, Gianluca Zambrotta, had won trophies with Juventus and Barcelona before joining tiny FC Chiasso in the Challenge League. And now Mario Balotelli at FC Sion, Italian and English champion, European Championship finalist, one of the most enigmatic figures in world football.
The Italians sent us a handful of their greatest footballers. And that's not all: they also brought us pizza. Rocco Delle Colli, an Italian who came to Rapperswil in 1979, had a major influence on our ability to enjoy this specialty here as much as in his country of origin. What he missed most was the food from his homeland. So much so that he regularly drove to Genoa to be able to eat an authentic pizza once again. In 1990 - the World Cup was just making a stop in Italy - Rocco Delle Colli opened his own restaurant on Lake Zurich. The name: "dieci", named after the mythical back number of the most magisterial footballers such as Maradona, Michel Platini or Roberto Baggio. Today, dieci runs three restaurants, five gelaterias and 40 pizza couriers, ensuring that Swiss people no longer have to travel hundreds of kilometers to taste real "italianità".
So we brought from Italy the delicious food and world-famous athletes. And what did our southern neighbors get in return? Well, you could say that these footballing exports were a kind of thanks for Switzerland helping to make Italy's football great. How?
Inter Milan - a Helvetic team
In fact, around 1900, Swiss players were highly sought-after reinforcements. At CFC Milan - today's AC Milan - the players bore names like Bosshard, Rietmann, Maner or Wipf. And these Swiss were good. Too good even for the Italians, because they almost always won. After protests, the league was divided into two: one for Italians, in the other foreigners were also allowed to play. In 1908, the Swiss in Milan had enough of discrimination and founded their own club and called it FC Internazionale Milan, the name was meant to symbolize openness to other nationalities. Just two years later, Inter became champions for the first time, with Engler, Peterli, Schuler, Zoller, Jenni and Aebi as the team's mainstays. And Swiss players continued to make their mark on Serie A: 145 of them played there until the Second World War.
So the next time you enjoy a fine pizza and you feel guilty because we "stole" this delicacy from the Italians: Always remember that their "calcio" could only become so great thanks to us!