Mario Ferri: Italian Pitch Invading Legend
Mario Ferri: Italian Pitch Invading Legend
By Eric Beard
Anyone watching the Spain-Germany match witnessed what seemed to be your average hooligan invading the pitch like a proper idiot in the first few minutes of the first half. However, this hooligan, Italian Mario Ferri, is actually cult hero in his homeland. We all saw him get tossed around by security guards, but this isn’t the first time he has been ushered off the pitch in such a harsh fashion. In fact, this is Ferri’s third pitch invasion for a cause that quite a few Italians were supporting. This cause was simply to get fellow cult hero and Sampdoria footballer Antonio Cassano on Italy’s national team for the World Cup, which didn’t happen. Marcello Lippi, Italy’s manager for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, did not want to deal with Cassano’s extravagant personality even though he had been in sensational form for Sampdoria.
