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Seven sisters12/21/2023 For better or worse, everyone is an expert now.Īfter a brief reprieve in 2013/2014 – finishing 6th but ineligible for European competition, Parma are back to the plight they have been experiencing for the last decade. There was no Twitter, no YouTube, just ones eyes and a small TV screen. At the time the continent still carried its own mystique it remained exotic, a little threatening, patently superior to the still maturing Premier League. In the decade between 19, its representatives reached the UEFA Cup final on all but one occasion – four of which were all-Italian affairs – taking the trophy home eight times.Įnglish fans of Serie A got their fix through Football Italia on Channel 4 between 1992-2002, presented by the marvellous James Richardson. Six lifted the trophy, seven were runners’ up. In the two decades between 19, Serie A clubs made the European Cup/Champions League final 13 times. It was also the most competitive league the world has ever seen. Of those who were awarded the Ballon d’Or between 19, all but two – Igor Belanov and Michael Owen – had played, would play or were playing in Italy. Whereas now it is the norm for the world’s best players to head for La Liga, and not so long ago you could argue they would head for the Premier League, it used to be that in order to be rubber-stamped as a great player you had to test yourself in Serie A. Artists in midfield like Manuel Rui Costa, Juan Sebastien Veron and Zinedine Zidane painted with their feet. The world’s best strikers – Ronaldo, Gabriel Batistuta, George Weah, Hernan Crespo, Christian Vieri, Alessandro Del Piero and Marcelo Salas – took on the best defenders: Franco Baresi, Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Giuseppe Bergomi, Lilian Thuram and Fabio Cannavaro. A dozen stadiums were remodelled and renovated to host Italia 90 and the facilities were regarded at the time as top notch. Their lives appeared more glamorous than anyone else’s. They were paid better than players anywhere else. The best players – Diego Maradona of Napoli, Marco van Basten of Milan, Lothar Matthäus of Internazionale, Roberto Baggio of Fiorentina – illuminated Serie A. When they hosted Italia 90, there was every reason to feel that Italy was the undisputed centre of the footballing universe. The grounds were packed, the squads littered with the world’s best players. “Le Sette Sorelle”. T he Seven Sisters – an era between the mid 90s and the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal of 2006 – in which Juventus, Milan and Inter, Roma and Lazio, Parma and Fiorentina were all battling it out for the Scudetto and European honours.
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