Football miracle in the Lagoon: Renaissance of the Winged Lions

There are many ways to die. Apart from the most obvious one, you can also lose your life while staying alive. Become some sort of a ghost, a zombie, a shadow. In football, there are even more ways to die. To lose matches, waste opportunities, suffer on the pitch and in the stands. You could be consigned to wander, without direction or ambition, to go through the motions while the time keeps flying by. If you can think of it – Venezia have been there.

Football isn't one of the first things that come to mind when you mention the picturesque Italian town of Venice. It's such a breath-taking place that calling it a town is doing it an injustice. It's a place soaked in history, tradition, beauty, controversy and sheer wonder – a fairy-tale-like kingdom somewhere between land and sea. It's a place people come to visit museums, cathedrals and galleries – but these days, football is the only thing that matters in Venice.

La Nuova front page celebrating Venezia's promotion (©La Nuova)

Venezia FC will be playing in the country's top division next season. After 19 years of finding new ways to die and break their fans' hearts, they've found a way to squeeze back into Serie A after a dramatic added-time goal against Cittadella. It's been almost two decades of dilapidation and financial problems, relegations and bankruptcy. It was a fitting way to return to life for a club whose home town has been all about renaissance.

Renaissance, meaning rebirth, a period in the 15th and 16th centuries, marked the end of medieval time and transition to modern life. It was a time when everything changed. The dark ages made way for beauty, arts and light. Venice was vital in that transition. An important port and a centre of culture played a big role in reinventing European life. Around six hundred years later, only tourists care about what's going on in Venice. But Venice is enjoying another renaissance – a renaissance of their beloved football club.

These are exciting times for Venezia fans (©Gallo Images)

Since getting relegated from Serie A in 2002, the club never looked like returning to the top flight. Not only that but there were times when the very existence of the club has been in doubt. Three times the club looked like dying a slow and painful death. They've had to file for bankruptcy three times and suffer forced relegations into Italy's fourth and third-tier divisions where only village teams and other bankrupt greats linger. The latest reformation came in 2015 when American investors came in and put the club on sound financial foundations. It was the start of their rebirth.

A big-name leader the supporters can trust is always welcome for a troubled team. For Venezia, it was former Italy international striker Filippo Inzaghi. The 2006 World Cup winner spent two years in charge of the first team in Venice and led them to promotion from Serie C to Serie B, on the brink of greatness. Inzaghi departed in June 2018 and left the club struggle again, going through three new coaches in the 2018/19 season. Last season, the club barely survived in the second tier, but yet another ownership change ensured more money for players as ambitions continued to grow. The 2020/21 season wasn't fantastic, but it did end in a tremendous play-off win and a long-overdue promotion.

Venezia FC is not a big club. Let's get that out of the way. They are not Milan, Inter, Juventus, nor Napoli. But they are a bit special – and that cannot be denied. Why? Let's take a look.

THE CITY ITSELF

Venice was built on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges of various styles and sizes. All those islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, where the Adriatic Sea found its way into the land. It was once the centre of a maritime republic, long before Italy was united into a single country. It was the greatest seaport in late medieval Europe and the continent's commercial and cultural link to Asia. Venice is unique environmentally, architecturally, and historically. It remains a major Italian port in the northern Adriatic Sea and is one of the world's oldest tourist and cultural centres. The city's location gave the football club one of its early nicknames: I Lagunari (People from the Lagoon).

Venice is not an ordinary city (©AFP)

THE GROUND

Stadio Pierluigi Penzo is one of the few grounds where you can go on foot, by car… and by boat! Located on one of many water canals, most people who live in the city need to cross the water somehow. The stadium was first erected over a century ago and has gone through many changes throughout its history. It seems like every one of Penzo's stands were build as temporary seating. But the word temporary appears to have a vastly different meaning in such an old city. Its current capacity is just over 7,000 places. You may say it's very VIP. Hopefully, next season will see the fans back in the stadiums in Italy. If that happens, getting a seat for a Venezia home match would be quite a challenge!

That is a cool location for a football ground (©OpenStreetMap)

CLUB COLOURS AND KITS

How many clubs can you name that play in black, orange and green? Exactly. Well, Venezia is easily spotted for their kits: black shirts adorned by orange and green hoops. It gave the team one of their nicknames - Gli Arancioneroverdi (The Orange-Black-Greens). Admittedly, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue, but it's as unique as they come. The very first Venezia shirt in 1907 was red and blue, similar to those Bologna and Cagliari wear today. But only a year later, Venezia adopted green and black as their colours. In the late 1980s, Venezia merged with a neighbouring mainland club of Mestre. Since they played in orange and black kits, Venezia adopted orange as one of their colours and added them to their shirts, making it one of the most recognizable shirts in football.

Riccardo Bocalon scores the crucial goal against Cittadella (©Gallo Images)

THE WINGED LIONS

The winged lion is a symbol you see everywhere in Venice. On palaces, flags, statues - and of course, on the Venezia FC badge. Its story is a compelling one indeed. In the 9th century, grave robbers stole the body of Saint Mark (one of Jesus' disciples) from Alexandra, Egypt and smuggled it to Venice. The body had to be concealed, and they encountered challenging sailing, but it was safely delivered to the Venetian ruler. From that point on, the city adopted St. Mark as their patron saint and the saint's emblem, the winged lion, as the logo of the Venetian Republic. Today, The Lion of St. Mark is strongly associated with everything Venetian. This is where another of the club's nicknames comes from - I Leoni Alati (The Winged Lions).

All the stories of an unusual place and an untypical club will take the back seat when the 2021/22 season rolls in. The Winged Lions will need to find a whole new level of competition, and they will have to be up for a fight. They don't lack ambition, that is for sure. Earlier in the season, they made former Inter defender Ivan Ramiro Cordoba their Managing Director. It proved to be a masterstroke, as the club benefited from the Colombian's experience and know-how.

Paolo Zanetti (©Gallo Images)

Young coach Paolo Zanetti is an easily excited and emotional man. Perhaps those are not two of the most desirable traits for a football manager, but it won't bother the Venezia faithful in these days of celebration.

"This year we find ourselves rejoicing in this incredible way. It was all our spirit of revenge that brought us this far. It was a real feat, and now we are in Serie A. I dedicate this outstanding result to all the fans who have never been able to come to the stadium this season, families who suffer from home watching our games on television, and my parents, to whom I am happy to have given this great satisfaction."

Rejoice, football fans! We're all witnesses of a true football renaissance!

By Nenad Mijaljević aka nenadsuperzmaj