[Rich]

Hello,

My name is Rich, I'm from Queens, New York, and have decided to become a Palermo supporter. The reason I picked Palermo is because of my Sicilian heritage ( my family is from Mazara Del Vallo, and it seems like Palermo is the closest Serie A club ). Unfortunately, I don't speak Sicilian ( Although I am hoping to learn! ). . I was hoping that someone could answer some questions for me.

1. Who are the best current players for Palermo? Best all time?

2. What is the most probable Starting 11 for the new season?

3. Do you think Palermo will be playing in Europe next year? Where do you think they will finish in the Serie A table ?

4. How would you describe Palermo's style of play?

5. Is there anything else I should know about the club? Anything they are known for ( history, songs, derbies etc..... ).

Thanks,
Rich

[Cesare]

Hi Rich, welcome!

Yes, Palermo is the closest city to Mazara del Vallo to have a club in Serie A, too bad for Trapani and Marsala that can't really do better than that

I'll try to answer, let's see...

1a) Best current players: probably Miccoli, Amelia, Nocerino and Liverani, maybe Jankovic too, we've changed our team roster deeply in the last 2 months, it was Amauri until a few weeks ago (now he plays for Juventus). Nocerino is captain of the olympic and under23 national team (you've probably seen him lately).

1b) Best all time: it's not easy, we haven't been in Serie A (premier league) for 32 years so there's not much to mention about those 3 decades but Luca Toni (current Italian national team striker), Fabio Grosso (national team defender and top player on the last World Cup that we won) and Amauri (see 1a) deserve a mention. Old great players: Radice, Vernazza, Troja and many others I can't remember (i'm too young )

2) At the moment it's supposed to be this way: Amelia; Raggi, Bovo, Carrozzieri, Balzaretti; Nocerino, Liverani, Migliaccio; Jankovic, Miccoli, Budan. But as i said above, a lot has changed so there's nothing's certain. Simplicio, Lanzafame and Cavani could be in that 'formazione' as well.

3) There's a poll about that, you can find it here: http://www.aquilerosanero.com/forum/...l-palermo.html . A brief translation: first option = 1° place; second one = within the first 4 (champions league); third option = 6th-8th (uefa cup); fourth option = safe, but not in any european competition; fifth option = we'll be demoted to serie B

4) We'll see that, we've done many good and too many awful matches the past season (it has been our worst season in the past 4 years since we are back to Serie A).

5) Our colors (or colours? can't remember which's british and which's american) are pink-black, did you know that? The only one derby we care about is against Catania ... if you wanna know something else, just ask . Wikipedia can be good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Citt%C3%A0_di_Palermo I don't have time to check if everything's correct on that page though . A short history can be found here: http://www.aquilerosanero.com/forum/...mo-calcio.html

Our stadium
Our records

Everything is in Italian though

I hope it was helpful

P.S.: there's another american guy who is currently posting comments on this board, he's from Florida: http://www.aquilerosanero.com/forum/...html#post32367 . There was another one from Pittsburgh but he's not very active . There's also an English crazy guy called Cannoli... maybe you can share some information with them, not everyone speaks English on this board, sadly

[Fontana]

I will be able to help you greatly because I have a high knowledge of the team (especially for an American), and I speak Italian like an illiterate peasant. Unfortunately, like Cesare said, a lot of your questions are very difficult because we have no history with a lot of these players. Players are difficult to compare from different positions, but one of our most exciting players is our tiny striker Super Miccoli. Nocerino was a signing from Juventus and he is a very good ball winner. Jankovic is maturing and Fontana is a hilarious old bag of bones (although unfortunately you won't see him much this season ). Cesare and I have previously talked about likely formations for the new campaign and have differing opinions, although judging from friendlies 4-3-3 is a distinct possibility.


My personal favorite player is Giovanni Tedesco because is originally from Palermo and you have to root for the homegrown guy! But much like Fontana, he is also an old old man

I don't know why I always seem to support the vecchio uomini the most

[Fontana]

But like you, I don't have much knowledge of Palermo songs so I'm hoping Cesare can give us some of those


The only ones I'm familiar with are Conquista la vittoria and the "SUCCAAA! FORTE!!! CA POMPA!!!CHIU FORTE!!!!!" chant , but I don't know the full words.



You should also pat yourself on the back for being true to your heritage and not supporting a side like Inter, Milan, or Juve just because they're good!!!!! Most Americans just support big clubs, good to show some character and support a side that is close to our hearts!

[Rich]

Cesare and Fontana:

Thanks for answering my questions, I dont have many more for now, but Im sure I will as the season progress' .

One I do have is; Where is the best source for Palermo news/rumors? Are there any websites in English that will provide me with this?

To Cesare:

I have found out about a club in Mazara called G.S. Mazara 1946
http://www.ilmazaracalcio.it/Home_.htm

Unfortunately, they are in the lower levels of league football ( making it very hard for me to follow ). Hopefully, one day, they will make it to the Serie A ( have Sicilian clubs take over the Italian league )

By the way, Color is the American version although both are acceptable ( I sometimes find myself spelling it with the "u" as well )

I did know about Rosanero. When I told my Uncle that I would be supporting Palermo, he bought me this shirt:



I find it to be a beautiful shirt. Though pink is considered in America to be a feminine colour, I will still wear the colors! Just yesterday, I wore the shirt, and I recieved many strange looks from people but I will never be ashamed to show the colors and to represent my heritage!

To Fontana:

I dont see how I could support any other Serie A side besides Palermo! My family comes from Sicily, not Torino, not Milan, not Roma. Why should I support them? I will support a club which represents me.

My neighbor lived in Palermo for most of his life, and supports Juventus . I dont understand how he could do that. Funny story, when Juve got relegated and had points deducted a few seasons back, he suddenly became an Inter fan and forgot that Juve even existed.

I am looking forward to supporting the Rosanero with both of you this upcomming season, and I plan on becoming a regular poster.

[Cesare]

Yeah, Mazara (together with Marsala and Trapani) are not really top teams, due to lack of money and valid sports centers. But their supporters are great, they do deserve better.

I've found these two websites: http://palermo.theoffside.com/ and http://www.football.co.uk/palermo/index.shtml . The first one seems to be very updated, passionate and well done I didn't know it until 3 minutes ago to be honest

Our official website can be helpful as well: http://www.ilpalermocalcio.it/en/home/index.jsp (the English version).

Don't worry about pink, it's the same old story, wherever you go, anywhere in this world, including Sicily... but that's what makes us so special and we're proud of our colors
You can see our brand new shirts here: http://www.aquilerosanero.com/forum/...08-2009-a.html

As concerning supporting Palermo instead of Juventus or other strong teams we call "strisciate" (which is like "striped", as Milan-Inter-Juve all have stripes, but with a negative value): well that's one of the major problems we have to live with even here in Sicily. Being in Serie B or C for 32 years made people forget about their city club, a lot of people who are now 30-40 y.o. or older currently support the "strisciate" and try to make their children do the same. That's mainly because men tend to stand on the winning side so that they can celebrate something every now and then rather than stick to their homeland, suffer for it, cry for it and be proud to belong to that city/town... isn't that what sport is all about? I think it is, we do our best to make people change their mind and we're (slowly) obtaining some result

P.S.: thumbs up for your uncle

[Fontana]

I can attest to cesares first link, the offside. I comment there daily under my real name, Giustino. The writers and fanbase there are the best you can find in English.

[Rich]

Cesare:

Another question for you ( since you are the administrator ). As I mentioned before, I do not speak italian. I would like to become an active member though.

I have been using google translator
http://translate.google.com/translate_t

to read through topics in most of the forum. While translations are not always perfect, I am usualy able to understand the meaning of the post.

Would it be ok if I used google translator to translate my posts into italian ( for the other parts of the forum )?

[Cesare]

It's not really accurate and can be quite funny to read but most of the time we can get the point

Anyway, to start with go to your user panel: http://www.aquilerosanero.com/forum/usercp.php and click on "Modifica le opzioni" under "gestione e opzioni" tab. At the bottom of that page you can see "linguaggio del forum" there you can choose English US. That should fix and translate most part of the forum (it comes out in English so you should have no problems at all). Of course you won't be able to see the posts in English but it's still helpful

P.S.: after you've chosen English (US) language you can go back to your user panel and change everything you want
P.P.S.: you can try http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ but I haven't really used it from english to italian so i don't know whether it's good or not. You can also use this great dictionary http://www.wordreference.com/ to translate single words and it's very very accurate

[Palermo USA]

Originalmente inviato da Cesare

There was another one from Pittsburgh but he's not very active .

E la verita!

Hi Rich - welcome to the board. I too became a fan of Palermo a few years back when they first were promoted to Serie A. I love soccer, especially Italian calcio, so I was finally able to claim a Serie A team for my own. My people are from Sicily, actually from Palermo - that's actually my name, BTW. So it was a natural fit for me.

As Cesare said, I don't make it here too often. Having three kids under 4 will do that.

Anyway - there are a lot of good people here - in fact, everyone has always been very helpful and very gracious.

Have fun, and I'll see you around!