The Internets Love Affair With San Marino
The unlikely story of the internets love for sports biggest underdog .
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Everyone loves an underdog story. Prior to the release of Rocky in 1977, Sylvester Stallone worked every job under the sun — from movie theatre employee to zoo cleaner - before, in a shitty New York hotel, Stallone penned the story of Rocky. After three days, the now world renowned rags-to-riches story of Rocky Balboa was fully written. Rocky Balboa - and Sylvester Stallone - imbody what an underdog story is: the concept of rising from the ashes to glory.
Sports - like everything - is filled with underdog stories. Luton’s incredible rise from National League regulars to Premier League debutants in ten short years is an example of a continuous underdog story over a longer period of time. Some underdog stories, however, can be one run to a final, topped off with one euphoric upset or even one game.
The USA’s ice hockey Olympic gold of 1980 has since been dubbed the “Miracle on Ice” such were the unbelievable odds that the Americans faced when pitted against the mighty Soviet Union. Yet, with only amateur players against the Soviet Unions fully professional side, America defied the odds, winning 4-3, meaning, with a win versus Finland America would clinch gold. Despite falling behind, the USA managed to triumph 4-2 over Finland, securing an unprecedented gold medal.
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Yet there is no underdog quite like the miniscule nation of San Marino. The oldest modern day country in Europe, San Marino is absolutely tiny. With a area size of 61.2 km² and a population of just over 33 thousand, San Marino has a smaller population than Ayr in South Ayrshire. By 10 thousand people. So, when a San Marino football team was registered by UEFA and FIFA in 1988, well… its gone about as well as you can may expect. Below is San Marino’s record from 1998 to October 1st 2024
Played: 210
Lost: 199
Drawn: 10
Won: once.
See San Marino aren’t just any terrible team. They are the WORST team on the planet, according to FIFA’s rankings at least. Sitting in 210th behind Anguilla and the US Virgin Islands. They have not won a game in 20 years: a 1-0 friendly against Lichtenstein.
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Due to UEFA’s seeding for World cup and Euros qualifiers’, San Marino, due to their terrible world ranking, are seeded at the bottom of every group. This means every team is of a way higher level than the minnows.
Then one competition in 2018 changed everything. The Nations League.
The Nations League that split every team in Europe into 4 tiers. Tier A is the best of the best teams, think France, Spain and Portugal, tier B is the teams just below this category, think Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic, all the way down to tier D which is the worst of the worst. Unlike tier A-C which currently features 4 groups of 4 teams, tier D only features 2 groups of 3 teams. Group D is truly the minnows of minnows. The Nations League as a competitive tournament also provided the opportunity for these smaller nations to pick up illusive competitive wins
Yet, San Marino were still a level below. In the inaugural tournament, San Marino slumped to bottom on zero points in a difficult group including Belarus, Luxembourg and Latvia.
In summer 2019, a new Twitter account was made: SanMarino_FA. Previously, the now-suspended account soccersanmarino, San Marino fan account - as it became known - live tweets every single San Marino game, as well as posting memes about San Marino and updates on San Marino club football. Tweets celebrating anything positive in a San Marino game would do humongous numbers. The first of which - a shot on goal vs Scotland - had 100x the likes of every single tweet around it.
San Marino Fan Account and its Italian speaking counterpart San Marino Futbol (created in 2021) are currently some of the biggest fan accounts on twitter, boasting a combined 530,000 followers. They are both an integral part of San Marino’s online fandom.
An improved nations league campaign in 2020/21 saw San Marino pick up two points, drawing versus Gibraltar and Lichtenstein. Sadly, despite notching some points, San Marino still remained rooted to the foot of their group, and in November 2021, made the decision to part ways with coach Franco Varrella.
It wasn’t until the 22nd of September 2022 that San Marino would pick another point. San Marino scored three times in this barren run, and conceded 66 in an 18 game span. Results towards the end of this run were better including a 1-0 defeat to Iceland and a 2-1 defeat against Lithuania.
Around this time San Marino’s next set of friendlies were revealed. And they took the internet by storm. A double friendly - home and away - against 170th ranked St Lucia. Instantly, social media knew this was San Marino’s chance for the allusive win. See, San Marino *probably* aren’t the worst side on the planet. San Marino do, however, have the misfortune of being situated in Europe. If San Marino were in Oceania for example, I do not think for a second they would be the worst nation on the planet. Fans of San Marino across the globe were hoping that this double header against St Lucia would prove that San Marino aren’t that bad. And maybe, just maybe, San Marino would be able to grab a victory.
San Marino would rock up to St Lucia and draw the first game 1-1, a 94th minute equaliser from 19 year old Lorenzo Lazzari, sending the internet into pandemonium:
After a last minute equaliser you would hope that San Marino would carry the momentum into their second match vs St Lucia. Sadly, three days later on November 20th, a Kurt Fredrick goal would be enough for St Lucia to pick up a 1-0 win in what was a poor performance from San Marino. This was San Marino’s chance for a win and they blew it.
European qualifiers began uneventful on the pitch with zero goals scored. San Marino - bar a 6-0 defeat to Finland - were no longer getting pumped. 2-0 defeats against Northern Ireland and Slovenia as well as a 4-0 defeat to Denmark were seen as big upgrades from previous campaigns. While the win was yet to happen, things off the pitch were looking better than ever.
First and foremost attendances were bigger than ever. Home games in the nations league vs Malta and Estonia only garnered 550 and 600 fans, with friendlies against Iceland and Seychelles (which ended 0-0) producing even less fans through the turnstiles. San Marino’s first qualifier game - vs Northern Ireland - saw 2000 fans in the San Marino stadium. Granted, a majority of these fans were likely from Northern Irelands travelling support, but fans are fans. They provide much needed income for the micro nation to further improve their countries small facilities and youth development.
Internet content creators began to jump onto the San Marino train. Away Days on Youtube released a video of going to San Marinos home match against Northern Ireland amassed close to 1 million views. Maqwells video essay discussing San Marino also accumulated close to 900 thousand views. Videos about San Marino were going viral, helping to put the worlds worst football nation on the map more and discussed within the footballsphere.
In October 2023 San Marino hit some ‘form’. They didn’t win or draw any games but they did notch a now famous equaliser against Denmark, with San Marino fan accounts tweet going incredibly viral on twitter with almost 9m people seeing the tweet.
Sadly, Denmark scored giving them the win but giving San Marino more fans for their brave display and arguably their best result in their history. Titani would follow up their impressive Denmark result with further excellent performances, scoring against BOTH Kazakhstan (3-1 defeat) and Finland (2-1 defeat), the first time the minnows have ever scored 3 games in a row. Despite not winning a game, San Marino - with their new influx of youthful talent - were getting better by the game.
In December 2023, manager Fabrizio Costantini left his role as head coach of Titani, replaced by Roberto Cevoli. Cevloli’s first match was against St Kitts/Nevis which ended in a 3-1 defeat. Four days later and Cevoli’s side managed to pick up a draw against The Sugar Boyz. Two more friendlies - versus Cyprus and Slovakia - ended 4-1 and 4-0 but are notable due to how young San Marinos squad was.
In June 2024, San Marinos u21 side picked up their biggest ever win, defeating Gibraltar 3-0, making it the first time, either the u21 or the senior side had won since 2013: when the u21s defeated Wales 1-0.
San Marino also discovered their nations league draw where they would face Lichtenstein - ranked 199 - and Gibraltar - ranked 198 - giving San Marino their biggest chance in years to finally win a match. The first match was Liechtenstein at home.
In the days before the big match, twitter was buzzing, knowing this was their chance to see San Marino finally win. In front of a thousand fans, and hundreds of thousands (genuinely) watching from around the world as San Marino walked out, 90 minutes away from potential history. But it was Liechtenstein who struck first, Fabio Luque Notaro sweeping home a close range finish. Fortunately, the goal was ruled out by VAR with Notaro deemed to have been in an offside position. Then the moment this article has been building too. In the 53rd minute, 19 year old Nicko Sensoli pounced on a lapse in defence to steer the ball passed Benjamin Buchel into an empty net. Pandemonium. A frankly terrible goal, matched with a terrible game of football. Not that San Marino or the internet cared. Instantly, twitter ( or X if you prefer) exploded with messages that THIS MIGHT BE IT.
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San Marino fan accounts tweets were doing ridiculous numbers, with tweets about the match reaching a combined total of over 30 million views. San Marino as a topic was NUMBER ONE trending on twitter in the UK, as the masses were pouring in to tweet about the plucky nation landlocked in Italy. After 8 gruelling minutes the referee blew his whistle. San Marino had done it. After 20 long years, they had won again and their first competitively. For a moment the football world - unless you are from Lichtenstein - rejoiced, the pinnacle being San Marino fans biggest tweet ever:
What made the victory so special was the squads youth. An average age of 23.7. Most in that team were toddlers the last time San Marino won. Some - like goal scorer Nicko Sensoli - were yet to be born.
Currently, San Marino are top of group D, but whether they win the group, or come bottom, nobody can take away the fact that they defied improbable odds. The biggest minnows of all, the greatest underdogs in all of sport had finally won a competitive game.
Played: 211
Lost: 199
Drawn: 10
Won: TWICE.
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Premier League digest will return on Tuesday, with an article about Scotland being terrible released somewhere in between.