From Balotelli to Vialli, football on a disc. The idea from Materazi Future Club

Music created from snippets of match commentary, interview extracts and stadium chants. Celebrating the figures who have shaped the history of Italian football over the last thirty years with the sounds of rock and electronic music. This is the hallmark of Materazi Future Club, three musicians born in the early 1990s, part of what they themselves have termed the YouTube generation – the generation that spent nights watching videos of players they hadn’t always seen play live. Materazi—with just one “z”—is a tribute to Fugazi, the legendary hardcore band from Washington D.C. Riccardo Montanari, Edoardo Piron and Marco Manini wanted to sing about football stories, and realised that the stories were already there. Like those of Cassano, Mimmo Criscito and Giuseppe Rossi, who feature prominently on Formazione titolare, their debut album released four years ago. Now it’s the turn of The Italian Job, their new album due out any day now, in which they’ve combined their passion for the Premier League with their love of British music. The protagonists of their new tracks are, in fact, the Italians in England who, at different times and with varying degrees of success, have ventured into the world’s richest and most challenging league. The titles alone speak volumes: Balotelli (Why Always Me), Conte (I Want To See The Fire), Ranieri (How On Earth Did That Happen), Calafiori (And You Are Fantastico) and the other songs tell the stories of players and managers who, for various reasons, have also won the hearts of English fans. Sometimes it is down to the way they express themselves in English during interviews—which can be a bit halting at times—and the Materazis have selected these clips so that each of the protagonists in the various tracks also conveys a little of their philosophy. The album closes with Vialli (The Italian Job), in which you can hear the laughter of the lad from Cremona who became one of the icons of Italian football. “Vialli is a 100 per cent positive figure,” the Materazis tell Il Foglio Sportivo.

“We haven’t seen him play much, but he’s one of those figures everyone always speaks highly of and holds in high regard. We feel a very strong bond with him thanks to the European Championship victory at Wembley, and in the article we’ve tried to highlight the moments when he spoke of being happy with his career, the achievements he’s made, the wonderful teams he’s played for and the people he’s met.” Vialli was one of the first Italians to move to England to play football. “It’s a footballing ‘brain drain’ that’s still going on,” say the Materazis. “Just think of Calafiori and Tonali. Of course, we’re also thinking of those who go abroad to pursue other careers: it’s an issue that strikes us as very contemporary.” But for every Calafiori who goes to the Premier League and wins it in his second season, there’s also a Tonali who hits rock bottom and embarks on a journey of redemption. “We’re also interested in exploring the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that can exist within a single person,” they say. The demons that must have haunted the Tottenham player’s mind are, in a way, exorcised by the chant that his former Newcastle fans had devised for him, and which the Materazis have included in Tonali (I miss the sun): “He drinks Moretti/He eats spaghetti!”. Recorded just outside London with producer Jake Long in a studio housed within a farm – “a bit run-down but still beautiful” – where a reclusive star like Kate Bush had lived for many years, The Italian Job is set to become the centrepiece of the band’s concerts. The tour kicks off on 6 November in Turin and, at each stop, will pay tribute to local football through the teams’ shirts which, as has become tradition, the audience lends or gives to the musicians. This blend of live music and football was even brought to the stage last year by Oasis during their packed reunion tour, featuring cardboard cut-outs bearing Pep Guardiola’s face and calls for the audience to perform the ‘Poznan’ – the choreographed routine that their Manchester City supporters had learnt from those of Lech Poznan during a long-ago Europa League match. They are unlikely to match the Gallagher brothers’ success, but Materazi Future Club had been thinking about bringing football into music right from the start.