Argentina’s Italian Connection

By Football Italia staff

Several of Argentina’s squad can claim Italian heritage, including one Lionel Messi.

Words: Elio Salerno

The Italian-Argentine connection has long been in existence. Ever since an influx of Italian immigrants began arriving on South American shores, the Italian population has put down roots. That is particularly true in Argentina, where it is estimated that over half of the population - up to 25 million people - have some degree of Italian heritage. The two countries shared many similarities in terms of culture, food, language, and a possibility to build a career in a different country.

The mass migration of Italians to Argentina, coupled with a relaxed stance on citizenship began to see those with dual identities move thousands of miles across the globe to Italy. For many of Argentine football’s top players, that was an opportunity they would not reject. Upon arriving in the peninsula, they found a country that shared their passion for the beautiful game, it was home from home. Deemed as natives and worthy of representing the Azzurri, we would see many of these players go onto successfully represent La Nazionale on the world stage. The ‘Oriundo’ would become a popular term in the Italian language and is still relevant today with members of the current Italian squad taking advantage of their Italian ancestry.

The use of ‘Oriundi’ in the national team is always up for debate and fans of the Italian national team have very diverse views on the subject. The ‘Oriundi’ have contributed to Italy’s World Cup triumphs, from Raimundo Orsi who represented both countries in his career and notoriously scored the winning goal at Italy won the 1934 competition to Mauro Camoranesi who played a pivotal role in Italy’s 2006 World Cup win. There are a hatful of others that include the likes of Omari Sivori, Hmberto Maschio, Dani Osvaldo and Gabriel Paletta.

In recent years Italy have attempted to claim members of the current Argentine setup. Unfortunately for fans of Gli Azzurri neither Paulo Dybala nor Mauro Icardi felt like they had a strong enough affiliation with their Italian heritage to choose the four time World Cup winners. Both players have been lighting up calcio with their performances and both would have been welcome additions to the national team. Although there was no confirmed approach, Italy could have had the world’s best player run out alongside the current crop of stars.

Lionel Messi qualifies to play for Italy through his Italian great-grandfather. Angelo Messi was born in Recanati, before moving to Rosario with his wife Maria in 1893. The Barcelona star’s mother is also of Italian descent, leading to his full given name: Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini.

That means La Pulga would have been eligible for the Azzurri, but thankfully for fans of the Albiceleste his priority was always Argentina, leaving Italians to dream about what might have been.

On Friday evening in Manchester these two football heavyweights go head-to-head at City’s Etihad Stadium. There will be some familiar faces lining up for Jorge Sampaoli’s Argentina with four members of their current squad playing in Serie A. Three of which, Diego Perotti, Lucas Biglia and Federico Fazio all possess Italian passports. The latter of the trio only represented Argentina for the first time last May, having previously left the door open to representing Italy under former manager Gian Piero Ventura.

Argentine ‘Oriundi’ are not represented in the Italy squad this time around, but with the history between these two countries there is an inevitability we will see one again soon. In the meantime, with no World Cup for Italy fans to pour their passion into this summer, perhaps we should do what many of our Italian ancestors previous opted to do; migrate our support to a country across the water and back Argentina in Russia this year.

Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow