Interesting site I found, explains the nicknames of some Italian players: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3562/nicks.html
BRILLIANT!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! For years, I have wondered why they call Costacurta 'Billy'. Mystery solved. The weekend is finally yielding something that is decent. Many thanks again.
I, even as a Milanista, never knew the reasoning behind the "Billy" nickname either until I saw this site. Except, I think the Del Piero one is wrong. I think Pinturicchio just means small...
No, it actually is the painter. Agnelli gave him the name. Later, he also gave him the far less complimentary name of Godot, for his inability to show up and leaving us all waiting and wondering when he would.
Vierchowod sounds more Polish than Russian George Boateng - beng beng - because he waved a gun about when he was refused entry to a nightclub..... These have got to be made up surely? Wasn't Koeman also called Tintin?
I had this book with a whole list of Italian player names. Toricelli was called Gepetto, Del Piero called Pinturicchio, Vierhowod was Lo Tzar for his Russian heritage, Di Livio Il Soldatino and Ravanelli the silverwolf for obvious reasosns. Funny stuff with nicknames.
Cafu = Il Pendolino (the fast train) Totti = Il Pupo (the pupate, the little one) Cassano = Peter Pan Montella = Top Gun Samuel = The Wall (pronounced 'de Vol') The radio announcer for Roma came up with all of those. When they played for Parma, Cannavaro was sometimes called 'Ciglò' = Big Eyebrows and Crespo was 'Labbrò' = Big Lips
In Florence they sell t-shirts that say "Toni e Furmini", which in the Florentine dialect mean "Thunder and Lightning".
haha i was gona buy that shirt off the web site but quantatiy was low and i need the money for sumtin else lol
Pinturicchio, in reference to a joke made by Gianni Agnelli when he tried to compare the up and coming Alex Del Piero to Roberto Baggio. In a parallel between the student "Pinturicchio" from Perugia and the teacher the famous painter "Caravaggio". This just goes to show how much Gianni Agnelli appreciated Roberto Baggio.