VEnEZIA
of spectators. “It was wonderful,” enthuses
Tonon. “There’s nowhere else on Earth where
something like that could happen.”
“That day meant so much,” says technical
director Poggi, who never reached Serie A
with Venezia as a player. “This isn’t just a job
for me – I got to celebrate twice, first as an
employee, then as a supporter. With the help
of other people, we’d created something. It
was nice to see everyone together, happy.”
Venezia’s promotion was testament to the
club’s recruitment strategy led by director of
analytics Alex Menta, a 30-year-old American
who played professional ice hockey in Finland
before becoming a football nut. He earned his
current position after initially offering to work
without pay to prove his credentials.
“I basically said, ‘Just give me a shot’,” he
tells FFT. “I did five months’ work for nothing,
then they were like, ‘S**t, we think you might
actually pull this off’.”
Menta’s use of data to find players has been
a break from the norm in Italian football,
something he believes has allowed them to
overachieve on a relatively modest budget.
“Italian clubs are stuck in 1950,” he says.
“They have their five friends that they know
really well – their five friends suggest players,
they overpay those friends and that’s how
they scout. We have a very different method.
“I run analytics on players, with a guy who
works with me. Once it gets past us, we send
it to our scouts who use the visual approach.
Using analytics to narrow it down is 10 times
easier than travelling to watch matches and
spending money, which is outdated and just
not cost effective. We’ve bought players for
very little money – the transfer fee for our two
central defenders combined was less than
some Serie A players make in half a month.”
One of those centre-backs, 23-year-old
Michael Svoboda, was signed and converted
from midfield based on information Venezia
identified while he was playing for WSG Tirol
in Austria’s top flight.
GONDOLIER GLORY
Ethan Ampadu is sitting in a hotel lobby, and
he looks startled.
Venezia’s latest loan signing – a link-up with
Chelsea that the Leoni alati hope could lead
to more temporary arrivals from Stamford
Bridge in the future – was minding his own
business when a mass of ultras marched past
the Hotel Indigo brandishing a megaphone,
then setting off a firecracker to signal their
fervour for the match. The deafening noise
briefly shakes the building, where Venezia’s
players have gathered after arriving via boat
earlier in the day.
Soon they’re taking the short walk through
the supporters and across the bridge to the
stadium, which is based on a tiny island with
room for little apart from a church, military
college and marina where television trucks
rest on barges. It’s the only way they could
reach the ground for this Monday night clash,
live on Italian TV.
Dark has fallen in what is arguably the least
glamorous corner in all of Venice. If the club’s
kit launches imitate the style and beauty of
the city itself, the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo does
not. Venezia had to play their opening three
games of the season away from home while
renovation work was carried out to bring the
ground closer to Serie A standards, but it still
appears some way short. Its crumbling main
stand is accompanied by an assortment of
temporary roofless structures – they look like
they’ve been shipped in from The Open golf
championship and then painted in the hosts’
orange, black and green colours.
Regulations dictate that capacity will need
to be upped to 16,000 if they stay in Serie A
next season – it’s already been increased
from 7,450 to allow a sell-out crowd of 8,043
in tonight, as COVID limitations are eased
across Italy. Fewer than 5,000 were present
for their two previous home matches – a 2-1
loss to Spezia and 1-1 draw against Torino
which mean Venezia sit second-bottom of
the table with only five points and five goals
from seven fixtures.
As the most boisterous home supporters
make their way to the Curva Sud (which isn’t
really a curve at all), not everyone is feeling
optimistic tonight. “We’re going to lose 4-0,”
sighs Luigi, beer in hand. “Maybe we can win
against Salernitana or Genoa, but Fiorentina
are very strong.”
This tussle has been billed as ‘The Derby of
Art’ between Venice and Florence, though the
pre-match light show is hardly Renaissance- instead, the floodlights flicker on and off
to the sounds of Gala’s Freed From Desire (an
Italian tune, at least) as ultras bounce up
and down and sing at the top of their voices.
One waves a giant flag bearing an image of
a bulldog; others prefer to perch at the front
of the stand, their backs to the pitch as they
prepare to conduct their fellow diehards over
the next 90 minutes.
Early on, it feels like an FA Cup tie between
lower-league and top-flight sides – Fiorentina
pin Venezia back amid a fevered atmosphere,
only to find no way past debutant goalkeeper
Sergio Romero. The Argentine international
sailed in a few days before the game, having
departed Manchester United in the summer.
With Ampadu proving increasingly strong
in midfield, though, Venezia gain a foothold,
then do what Luigi the pessimistic ultra would
have considered unthinkable: they take the
lead, as Fiorentina’s backline is breached and
Frenchman Thomas Henry squares for Mattia
Aramu to find an empty net. The goal would
have lifted the roof off the Curva Sud, if there
actually was one. “Mattia!” yells the stadium
announcer. “ARAMU!” the crowd respond, as
celebratory smoke bombs go off.
The Viola unleash on-loan Arsenal scrapper
Lucas Torreira after half-time in a bid to spark
them back to life, but Venezia’s containment
tactics work a treat and a progressively niggly
game gets away from the visitors. Fiorentina
players argue among themselves, and a flurry
of yellow cards inevitably ends with Vincenzo
Italiano’s team being reduced to 10 men, as
Riccardo Sottil sees red.
In the Curva Sud, supporters begin to sway
with scarves above their heads as they sing
El Gondolier, their version of You’ll Never Walk
Alone: “I row in the lagoon, I row and I want
to sing, I am the gondolier,” they chant. After
two decades of struggle and depression, this
feels like an emotional moment. Seconds
later, the song complete, they begin twirling
the scarves above their heads exuberantly.
It’s still only 1-0, but already this stadium is
starting to witness its biggest party in years.
That party is almost ruined as highly-rated
forward Dusan Vlahovic – surprisingly quiet
for the most part – curls millimetres wide of
the post, but Venezia almost make it 2-0 on
the counter-attack when Fiorentina’s keeper
goes up for a corner in the dying seconds. At
the final whistle, there are rapturous scenes- one of the most famous clubs in Italy have
been defeated, prompting Ampadu to march
up to the Curva Sud and whip up the fans
one final time.
“This is a fairytale,” beams fan and reporter
Spessotto. “We have a team to celebrate at
last.” Venezia’s first Serie A home win for 19
years moves them out of the drop zone and
up to 15th in the table. In time, there’s hope
that they can progress even further – maybe
even a first foray into Europe one day.
“With this city backing us and the quality of
life that Venice delivers, I don’t see a ceiling,”
says Menta. “I might be talking too soon, but
I like our odds of staying up. We have a very
special group and a coach to take us where
we want to be, which is eventually playing at
high levels of European football. That would
be pretty dreamy – we might need a movie
crew on that one.”
World football certainly doesn’t offer many
similar stories. After a thoroughly successful
evening, Ampadu emerges from the dressing
room, poses for photos with fans and boards
a taxi boat, ready to be taken away down the
canal like the disco police. He never got this
at Chelsea or Sheffield United. Only in Venice.
64 December 2021 FourFourTwo
Above Venezia
manager Zanetti
(right) welcomes
Viola’s Italiano
Right Fans drink
it in as Aramu’s
goal secures an
historic triumph“WITH THIS CITY BACKInG US
AnD THE QUALITY OF LIFE IT
DELIVERS, THERE’S nO CEILInG”