Massimo turns his head slightly towards his passenger and utters a statement with the forcefulness and poise that perhaps only an Italian can muster. ‘Football is dead in Italy; there’s no football left. Tennis is the number one sport.’
One might think that Massimo, a taxi driver and sports fanatic, is trying to engage his passenger during the week of the Italian Open, but there is something very profound and true in what he says. The Italian national football team has failed to qualify for the last three World Cups, and the Italian league “is less important than the Spanish and English leagues,” the taxi driver asserts. “Even if it hurts.”
