When Italian midfielder Stefano Fiore scored that spectacular second goal for Italy against Belgium last week, he launched himself into a curious backward run towards the Italian fans, all the time pointing to his own name on his team shirt.
"That was just an instinctive thing, and I did it for the benefit of all those who refused to believe in me," Fiore said the other day after training at Italy's Euro 2000 camp in Geel.
Italians like to say that revenge is not so much sweet as more a dish that is best eaten cold. If that is the case, then 25-year-old Fiore has been enjoying his cold buffet at these Euro 2000 finals. For a boy from one of Italy's poorest regions, Calabria, his meteoric rise over the last four months represents a huge personal triumph.
Six months ago, almost no one would have named the Udinese midfielder as a candidate for Dino Zoff's Italy squad at Euro 2000. Now, however, he has concluded a remarkably good club season by following the tradition established by such famous names as Paolo Rossi and Toto Schillaci, namely that of bursting onto the international stage at a major finals tournament.
Twelve months ago, Fiore himself could hardly have predicted that he would strut his stuff for Italy in a Euro 2000 quarterfinal clash with Romania at the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels tonight. Such has been Fiore's contribution to this side that, while the nationwide debate rages as to whether Alessandro Del Piero or Francesco Totti play up front, no one has even dared suggest that Fiore should be dropped to make way for both of them. In the space of two games against Turkey and Belgium, he has proved himself a vital element in Zoff's side.
To some extent, Fiore , more than any other Italian player, embodies the sense of national renaissance being experienced by Italy at these finals.
Twelve months ago, however, Fiore's thoughts were far from the King Baudouin stadium. The watershed move in his career came about almost incidentally when his $8.3 million dollar move from Parma to Udinese was inserted within the overall framework of the $35 million dollar deal that saw Udinese's talented Brazilian striker Amoroso move to Parma. Freed of the pressures of playing for one of Italy's "Magnificent Seven" big clubs, Fiore blossomed in the relatively tranquil waters of provincial Friuli, consistently looking both elegant and skilful while picking up the occasional goal. Looking back on the move, Fiore pointed out that it had not come about without a lot of reflection.
"It was something I had to do for myself, to find out if I was as good as I thought I was . . . You see, in a provincial club like Udinese, you are free to make mistakes, whereas in a big club like Parma, you can't. I played for six months for Parma, and I played well. Then I had one bad game and, immediately, I was written off."
In Fiore's words, one senses something of the frustrated anger of a player for whom nothing has been made easy. He started off in the unfashionable south, signing his first professional contract with second division Calabrian side Cosenza.
Unlike youngsters who come up through the youth team at big clubs such as Inter Milan, early footballing life was not streamlined and planned. It could take three buses to get to the youth team training ground. The pitch itself was usually more stones and cinders than grass, and it was often used by five teams simultaneously.
Fiore's chance of making it onto the international stage came just after Italy had clinched their Euro 2000 place with an unimpressive 0-0 away draw to Bielarus last October. That game had underlined Italy's shortcomings and left coach Dino Zoff with the conviction that he would do well to experiment in search of new talent.
Of the new players tried in friendlies this spring, none was more impressive than Fiore, who won his first cap in a 1-0 win against Sweden in Palermo in February and who looked both poised and skilful despite playing in a less than impressive side. That debut was followed by caps against Spain (20 away defeat in March) and against Portugal (2-0 home win in April).
To a large extent, Fiore represented an answer to Zoff's prayers. Under huge pressure to install Roma's talented playmaker Francesco Totti as the official midfield general, Zoff found a more than viable alternative in Fiore. Less flamboyant than Totti, the Roma player (considered a striker not a midfielder by Zoff), Fiore is a quintessentially modern player, able to combine midfield filter duties in defence with traffic direction in attack, while also capable of the occasional spectacular, long range goal, as against Belgium. Talk of national renaissance in relation to Fiore is not misplaced. He is among those who feel that his initial difficulties were not made any easier by the fact that he was Italian, arguing that he was often squeezed out of the reckoning because Italian clubs like to buy foreign midfielders.
Given the way that the newest Italian kid on the block has played at Euro 2000 so far, no one is disagreeing. The intriguing thought is that Fiore can get better, starting as of tonight against Romania.
