Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s something absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that the Euro 2020 football/soccer final between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium was for the books for more reasons than one. That’s because not only did the former lose following penalty shootouts by just a single goal, but the way their fans behaved both before and after those hours on the field was utterly deplorable. This much has actually even been evidenced in Netflix’s ‘The Final: Attack on Wembley,’ wherein Gianluca Santoro is honestly rather significant since he offers the viewpoint of an unbiased Italy fan.
Gianluca Santoro is a Proud Immigrant
It was reportedly back in 1993 that Brindisi, Southern Italy native Gianluca relocated to London, England, so as to build a better life for himself, just to eventually settle down in the area for good. The truth is he’d actually fallen head over heels in love with a local, drivng him to make the ultimate sacrifice of immigration prior to doing his best to also stick to his humble roots as much as possible. Therefore, of course, once this couple welcomed their daughter Maya into this world around 2010, they wanted her to embrace both sides of her heritage as much as they did, if not a lot more.
“For me, football is love; football is emotions,” Gianluca candidly said in the aforementioned original production. “It brings people together… If I think about me and my daughter and the fact she’s half-English and half-Italian, I’m proud of that. But I want her to feel Italian — to have Italian roots and… football was a way to do that.” It thus comes as no surprise that when she gradually took an interest in this sport too, he was over the moon before realizing he’d spend any money to secure tickets for the 2020 Euro finals.
But alas, little did Gianluca know the minute he’d arrive near Wembly with his 10-year-old daughter in Italian merch, objects of all kinds would be lobbed at them by drunk, ticketless bystanders. “I remember walking towards the stadium, and the floor was full of broken glass. It was like a bomb had gone off,” he once told The Sun. “I had to stop bottles and cans hitting us with my hands… and some were open, so the beer was spraying all over us. I was really scared for my daughter’s safety because the bottles were flying at us from all over the place, and people were yelling abuse and swearing at me.”
Then, in the documentary film, Gianluca added, “It was just me and Maya surrounded by English fans. It felt like we were under attack… My only thought was to protect my daughter. Then we saw a group of Italians, and straight away they started shouting at us, ‘What are you doing? Come, come with us! Don’t be on your own. Come with us!’ They saw my daughter, and they all surrounded her. I put a rucksack, like in front of her face and over her head.” He was initially very proud of himself for giving his little girl the opportunity to see such a historic match live, yet then all he could think of was if he made a mistake by bringing her to such a crowded place.
Gianluca actually expressed, “At that moment, I thought maybe I was a bit naive or stupid as a parent to bring my daughter to – – to this match.” The fact their tickets had somehow gotten mixed up didn’t help their experience either, especially as their seats turned out to be on the English side of the stadium. Thankfully, though, the local security officials went above and beyond to help this duo — in fact, during halftime, they were even redirected to the Italian wing, which undoubtedly saved them from facing a lot more traumatic abuse when their team finally won at the end of shootouts.
Gianluca Santoro is a Proud Family Man
Despite Gianluca and Maya witnessing unimaginable bigotry, hatred, plus rowdiness on that fateful 2020 day, they are both actually still proud residents of South London, England. That’s because they wholeheartedly believe the aftermath of this whole ordeal — comprising their society coming together to support all players no matter their skin color and publicly/vocally standing against abuse — is what their home is really about.
“I still think that, you know, England and English people are very nice, very open-minded, very tolerant of other people and cultures,” this 51-year-old hard-working tennis coach plus dedicated family man expressed in the film. “But, for that one day, England almost became the enemy… [However], I often think they did me a favor. Maya, when she talks about something relating to Italy, she says, ‘But daddy, we Italians…’ or ‘But us Italians…’ When I say it’s more than football. For me, it was more than football.”
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