Italians deals, precisely, with Italians abroad and we at Mondiali.it have focused on those sportsmen who “defend” the tricolor in a foreign land.
Today we want to tell you the story of those who exalted the Italian blue many years ago and radicalized Italian football on American soil.
This is the football club of the Brooklyn Italians Soccer Club , a team based in the metropolis of New York in the homonymous district of Brooklyn. The team has a history of almost 70 years, in fact it was founded in 1949 by a large group of post-World War II Italian migrants, led by Mr. John DeVivo . Currently the club plays inNPSL , National Premier Soccer League (American fourth national division).
The management of this beautiful company wanted to tell us a few pills of its great story .
Founded in ’49 as the first foundations were laid
After the Second World War, many Italians came to America to seek fortune and work. Some of these Italian immigrants first formed a social club, and then from the social club they created a real football team that challenged both other Italian teams of social clubs, other teams of other nationalities of origin such as: Germans, Hungarians, Irish, etc …
Some Italians who created the club are still alive
Sure! Two of the historical founders: Carmelo Ullo and Jerry Valerio are still fully active in our environment, they regularly come to visit us in the training fields and during the championship matches.
How the company has grown over the years
The club’s leadership is now much smaller, with various members moving to New Jersey and other suburban neighborhoods. Currently most of our work is with our youth section of the football team. We still have over 500 children between the ages of 4-18 playing football. We want to make them grow with football culture. However, now there is no longer that conception of pure Italianity present in the team, but we also liked to open up to other cultures and ethnic groups.
There are particular stories of immigrants who took part in the founding of the club
Throughout the history of our club there have been many different and particular situations. Lately we have had some Haitian players, ages 13 and 15, who fled Haiti in search of a better life. The 2010 earthquake and famine in the small country forced many people to flee. These two kids came to train with our youth teams and we signed them. We later discovered that they slept homeless in Prospect Park and so we tried to help them, first by hosting them and then finding them a family to adopt them.
Throughout history, from a footballing point of view, what have been and what are the objectives of the team
The primary purpose for the youth club is to first and foremost provide a safe place for Brooklyn children to learn education and play together. So, we want to help our kids go to college with college coaches.
After that, we want to offer opportunities to players who are good enough to play at a professional level. We do this by moving to our first team, where many players who have done well have gone on to pursue successful professional careers.
The goal of our first team is to have the team made up of 50% young Brooklyn graduates Italian by 2025. In our last game, we finished the game with six current or former youth team players on the field, which is something we are very proud of. Our first team is doing very well and we also have the youngest middle age team in the league.
Do you have twinning with other Italian and European teams
Yes, we have a partnership with West Ham United in England and Chievo Verona in Italy. Verona is organizing a field for our players.
It’s nice to see players like Giovinco, Pirlo, Donadel playing in the MLS
Yes, it’s always nice to see great Italian players playing in America where we can see them and let them teach us something. Above all we like to watch Sebastian Giovinco who is in the prime of his career and could still play for one of the best clubs in Europe.
He believes the club can grow over the years
. The club’s football team is getting better and better every day. The management must always be up to par and the plan is to get more parents of youth players involved in the club so that this can increase its financial stability.
What do you expect in the near future
Both from him and from the club
For the club, we aim to have 50% of our first team made up of young graduates by 2025. We will continue to grow and improve our teams and players, strengthening our philosophy and methodology every year. For me, I’m not sure what the future holds. I am convinced that if you work hard today, there will be success tomorrow. I would like to work in Italy someday in the future.
Dario Sette
