My italian cousin has joined Steem, and sooner or later he will have a similar idea, so I just have to be sure to be the first to raise the flag, because the older and much more prestigious football club of the city of Genoa is - you guessed it- GENOA and not, I repeat, not "them" :-)
The Genoa Cricket and Football Club was founded in the year 1893 and is the very first italian champion. The side had won all of its nine "scudetti" and the tenth robbed by Mussolini before the cousins of UC Sampdoria had even been founded in 1946. That`s coincidentally the year of birth of my father who actually is a Sampdoria tifoso.
As a kid, I spent every summer holiday in Italy with my Grandma and my aunts, uncles and cousins. Football is one of the very first memories I have. I knew about it before I even cared, because when I was a little boy once another kid had tried to bribe me with a Panini picture of this guy to become a fan of Sampdoria when I confessed I was still undecided
I knew I had to choose a side and it was hard. My father, uncles and cousins were on one side, my grandmother and aunt on the other...and so I decided one faithful night watching an obscure little city tournament - the Trofeo Colombo or something - that I would turn a Genoa Fan, if they won that trophy and...they did!
That`s pretty much everything they ever won in my lifetime so far, unlike my cousins who had 1 national title, several national cups and even a european one in the meantime. But we won a lot of Derbies, so who cares.
I had turned a FC Bayern and Germany Fan at home, so after a while I had won pretty much everything a man can win sitting on a couch and shouting and up to today I still dream of the "Stellina"* and a Champions League Final Genoa vs Bayern Munich.
FORZA GENOA!
*In Italy, you get a little Star when you win 10 Championships.