Rambo, Fruity Tactics and a Keeper Lost in Fog… Italy’s Weirdest Derby-Day Stories

Have you heard the one about the spy dressed as Rambo? Or how about the tale of the disappearing kit?

Italian football can be full of surprises. Some good, some bad and some just downright strange.

So, sit back and enjoy the weird and wonderful events that have livened up derby day over the years.

Rambo in Genoa

The Derby della Lanterna is one of Italy’s marquee matches. When Genoa and Sampdoria get together, the Stadio Luigi Ferraris is a cauldron that befits the history of the two clubs.

Games between them often end in a flurry of yellow cards and the odd red. Yet one of the most unusual stories happened off the pitch, in September 2013, when Genoa were caught up in a bit of espionage.

In the days leading into the first derby of the season, Luca De Pra, a Rossoblu coach, was caught hiding under a tree, dressed in camouflage, spying on Samp.

De Pra, who was a goalkeeper coach for the youth set-up, seemingly went off his own back as a favour to his employers. He was caught and chased away by Blucerchiati officials. Genoa later suspended De Pra, while Samp released an amusing statement.

It read: “That the derby is a question of nerve, tactics and strategy we already knew, but frankly we could never expect that it could turn into a scene of espionage.

“Like Rambo hidden among the branches on the hill, Luca De Pra failed to overcome Sampdoria’s intelligence and counter-intelligence operations. However, no prisoners were taken and no blood was shed. Once tracked down and caught red-handed, the opposing side’s soldier was let free to return to base. You should always forgive your enemies, as nothing annoys them more.”

Genoa romped to a 3-0 win, De Pra was reinstated and remains at the club to this day. 

The kit that disappeared

Imagine it is minutes before one of the biggest, if not the biggest, game of your season, a derby against your fiercest rivals, and someone realises there is no kit. This happened to Palermo in 2001.

The Rosanero were due to play Catania in the Derby di Sicilia at the Stadio Cibali and had made the long trek to the east of the island.

Two versions of the story have survived in the years since. The first is, that a member of the Palermo staff left the shirts back at the club’s training centre by accident, and only realised his mistake when the bag was opened in the changing room.

The second, and to be honest, more interesting account, is that the shirts did indeed make it to Catania, only to be stolen.

What is undeniable is the fact that Palermo had to take to the pitch for the Serie C1 fixture wearing their training shirts with numbers hastily put on the back using tape.

The game ended 1-1 but Palermo would have the last laugh, winning promotion back to Serie B, while Catania would lose in the play-off final to Sicilian rivals Messina, meaning another year in the crazy world of the third tier.

Mazzone on a run

Carletto ‘Carlo’ Mazzone is one of the most loved Italian coaches of all time. The Roman-born Mazzone might not have won a pile of honours, but you will be hard pressed to find many players with a bad word to say about him.

“I would have given my life for him,” said the great Roberto Baggio when asked recently of his relationship with Mazzone in an interview with Forbes Italia.

As Brescia boss, Mazzone had rescued Baggio in the summer of 2000 when he was a free agent. What followed was a relationship that blossomed into a true friendship.

Baggio and Mazzone were in their second season with the Rondinelle when they were pitted against Atalanta in the Derby Lombardo in September 2001. Both clubs live in the shadow of the Milanese giants, but the Lombard derby is just as spicy as the Derby della Madonnina, albeit on a much smaller scale. 

In the Stadio Mario Rigamonti, Brescia found themselves 3-1 down by half-time, and the locals were getting restless. Mazzone, meanwhile, was getting abused by La Dea’s ultras at the far side of the ground, who were hurling insults about his mother, who had died when he was young. 

“They hit a nerve,” he wrote in his 2010 autobiography. “My Achilles heel.”

Baggio scored his second goal of the game in the 75th minute to make it 3-2 and Mazzone shouted aloud that if Brescia were to equalise, he’d be marching down to give Atalanta’s feared ultras a mouthful.

And that’s what happened. Baggio’s floated free-kick in the 92nd minute evaded everyone trickled into the net. The Divine Ponytail had completed his hat-trick, and off Mazzone went.

Then a spritely 64 years old, he couldn’t be held back as he ran the length of the pitch, right arm extended and fist clenched, revelling in the moment as he got as close to the barrier that divided the away fans from the pitch as possible. It was an extraordinary sight from a man who usually exuded such calm.

Mazzone then calmly walked back and was shown a red card by referee Pierluigi Collina, to which Mazzone shook his hand and walked down the tunnel. Collina revealed in 2022 that it was “one of the most beautiful moments of my career”. 

Mazzone’s run has been printed on t-shirts and banners ever since.

No man left behind… except the Juve keeper

How many times have you watched a game featuring AC Milan or Inter on TV and it looks a little foggy? This is part of the exotic appeal of Italian football, often you never know if it’s fog or smoke from the flares inside the ground. 

When the Derby d’Italia rolled around in the 1958-59 season, the first fixture was scheduled for early December, and as often the case at this time of year in Milan, the weather decided to shift.

Inter were two goals ahead but as the game drifted into the second half the weather got worse, descending into a kind of fog dystopia. With visibility reduced to near zero and players from both teams unable to see each other, referee Vincenzo Orlandini called it off.

Yet no one told poor Juventus goalkeeper Carlo Mattrel, who stood for several more minutes in between the posts despite the rest of the players having left the pitch.

The game was replayed several weeks later, which Juve won 3-1. 

Bitter winners

The Derby della Madonnina is Italy’s marquee fixture, known around the globe as one of the games to see. A sophisticated affair in the fashion capital of the world, with global superstars on show. But even this can still descend into farce.

In the early stages of the 1957-58 season, Benito Lorenzi was at the heart of one such epsisode. Signed from Empoli a decade earlier, Lorenzi was given the nickname Poison by his mother, owing to his supposed liveliness as a child. 

Inter defender Guido Vincenzi slotted home what could only be described as a soft penalty won by Lorenzi after the forward took a tumble in the Rossoneri penalty box. The Nerazzurri tried to defend and settle for the 1-0, but Concetto Lo Bello, one of the most famous Italian referees of all time, awarded Milan a spot-kick of their own.

Amid all the kerfuffle from his team-mates over the penalty, Lorenzi went to the sidelines to fetch a lemon and some water. “I instinctively took a lemon and put it under the ball. The Milan fans, Mother of God how they were shouting, ‘the lemon, the lemon’. (Ernesto) Cucchiaroni took the kick and it missed the target by six metres,” Lorenzi recalled years later in an interview with La Repubblica. 

“The match finished and we won 1-0. I flew off quickly because lots of the fans wanted to jump onto the pitch and so I got into the changing rooms straight away.”

The game forever became known as the ‘derby of the lemon’ and Lorenzi, who was already an Inter idol by 1957, became a true club legend.