Vince McMahon Soon To Be Scouting Sardinia

By: chris | December 6th, 2007

This story has been oh so capably covered over at the Italy blog by Martha, but it needs to be displayed to a greater audience.

When you’ve taken 5 points in 6 weeks, and were always going to struggle to stay afloat anyway, it’s probably not in your best interests to spark fights with your teammates. Or have a thug roll them in public. Or maybe the constant losing is taking its toll on the young Sardinian team and that’s why you have a thug rough up your teammates. Spark some fire. Either way, team chemistry is not formed by having your teammate attacked by men with “thick Neapolitan” accents. Mild, fine. Thick, not so much.

The story, as told by the victim’s lawyer, which happened way back on October 24th, says Pasquale Foggia, on loan from ~~hell~~ Lazio and Cagliari’s best player this year, got in an altercation during practice with Davide Marchini, another loanee, just not as good. Words were had, and Foggia got in the final one, saying, “we’ll see what happens on Monday.” Fast-forward to that Monday, Marchini and Roberto Acquafresca are chilling in a cafe, minding their own business when Foggia comes in and asks to have a seat. I’ll let the lawyer take it from here:

“Marchini refused and Foggia went outside, but a man with a thick Neapolitan accent arrived and sat in the chair next to Marchini. The man demanded to know why Marchini had fought with Foggia in training. Marchini got up to leave, but the man hit him hard in the nose.”

“Marchini fled the bar being chased by his assailant, who was brandishing a chair. He escaped the scene when the man threw the chair at a parked car. Foggia and Acquafresca were standing outside.”

I’ll give you one guess as to where Foggia is from. Just one. Yeah, Napoli. I wonder what type of chair it was. Folding, perhaps?

Of course the best part comes in the Italian presses, which says that the first person Marchini called after the incident was not the police, or his lawyer or agent or coach. It was his mommy & daddy, who subsequently called the coach, telling him of the altercation, then asking if they could bring orange slices to the next game.

As absurd and ridiculous as this is, and as much as Serie A could use some positive press at the moment: man do I love Italia. The drama never ceases.