Football has definitely returned. The assignment of the Italian Cup - won by Napoli for the sixth time in the history of the Neapolitans - looks a lot like a moment when you leave everything behind and go back to being serious, with final verdicts still to be decided. Although for the real fans the return to football has had a bitter aftertaste given the restrictions due to covid-19, we are still in front of an event that we have been waiting for months. Happiness quickly turns into creativity and one of the steps that accompanies us to the first kick-off of Serie A (Saturday at 19.30 with Torino-Parma) has to do with music.
Georgia Stevens, a young English graphic designer and already mind and hand behind the artwork "If footballers dropped their albums", has collaborated with nss sports to create an all-Italian version of album covers mixing the past and present, the glory of the players who have made Serie A one of the best leagues in the world and the musical and football current affairs of those who want to revive the fate of our football. The albums were chosen based on the characteristics of the players or their nicknames.
Recovery by Eminem ft. Cristiano Ronaldo (2010)
Let's start with the best player in Serie A, the
richest footballer in the world and the only
billionaire in football history. The idea of associating it with Marshall Bruce Mathers III's seventh album stems from the idea that CR7 at 35 is still physically able to keep that type of step and that type of athleticism. The physical "
recovery" of the former Real is simply frightening.
DNA by Ghali ft. Zinedine Zidane (2020)
Out of the ordinary personality, unquestionable talent and numbers in hand one of the best ever. It could be the description of
Zizou - capable of winning a Champions League, three national championships, a European, a World Cup and a Golden Ball as a player while as a coach a Liga and three Champions League - or the description of Ghali, capable through albums and singles, to be at the top of many charts in terms of copies sold.
Mowgli by Teadua ft. Radja Nainggolan (2018)
The easiest link between player and album cover.
Radja Nainggolan is exactly like the tiger on Tedua's album, released on March 2, 2018. The Ninja's style of play is wild, sportingly aggressive (in the best sense of the term) and almost without rules. Like Mowgli, however, has yet to find its definitive position in the world.
Fenomeno by Fabri Fibra ft. Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (2017)
The title is enough and the mind immediately flies to one of the top 5 strikers in football history.
Ronaldo - who now distinguishes himself from CR7 thanks to his nickname "
Fenomeno" - is the player that everyone would like to have, the center forward able to make department alone and to stun the defense with a full arsenal of weapons. "
Everybody wants a Fenomeno" sings Fabri Fibra in the homonymous single from the 2017 album and that's right.
Trap Lovers by Dark Polo Gang ft. Pierluigi Gollini (2018)
From nicknames to style, because Pierluigi Gollini - for all
Gollo in the dressing room of Atalanta - is a mixture of agility between the posts and stylistic light-heartedness off the pitch. The Atalanta goalkeeper enters this ranking using the trap style of the
Dark Polo Gang, probably the first successful trap stars in Italy. Gollini, however, is one of the first to show off a unique style, very hype and very close to the stylish culture of modern footballers.
Greatest Hits by N.W.A. ft. Maradona, Totti, Del Piero, Batistuta, Van Basten (1996)
Replacing
Ice Cube, Mc Ren, Eazy Y, Yella and Dr. Dre was not easy, but if the album from "
Greatest Hits" becomes "
Greatest Strikers" it is all much easier.
Diego Armando Maradona, Francesco Totti, Gabriel Omar Batistuta, Marco Van Basten and
Alex Del Piero form the quintet of the Legends whose goal collection would be just as exciting as listening to
Express Yourself or
Straight Outta Compton.
Encore by Eminem ft. Zlatan Ibrahimović (2004)
Eminem returns and does it in style, accompanied by Zlatan Ibrahimović. The cover of the 2004 album shows the rapper as he bows before an audience. The meaning that many have read with that gesture concerns the desire to leave the music scene. The confirmation also comes from the title track finale, in which Slim Shady (Eminem's alter ego) kills the audience with a gun and then commits suicide. In a sense, even Ibra has been meditating on his retirement for years (without killing and suicide of course), but he would never go away bowing but spreading his arms as he does after each of his goals.
1969 by Achille Lauro ft. Theo Hernández (2019)
The man you don't expect, the man whose rhythm is different from the others and in some ways the best man of the moment. Theo Hernández has astonished this season as much as he has surprised Achille Lauro on the stage of the Sanremo Festival: extraordinary style, crazy talent and golden year for the two. With 1969 Achille Lauro had the definitive artistic consecration. Will this season finale also consecrate the power of one of the strongest full-backs in Serie A?