Former Italy goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca has opened up about his deep and longstanding affection for Aston Villa, a club he first discovered as a young man.
Pagliuca explained that he fell in love with Aston Villa after watching clips of English football on television during the early 1980s.
English football carried a unique mystique for European fans during that era, with the First Division widely regarded as the most competitive and physical league in the world.
For a young Pagliuca growing up in Italy, those televised glimpses of English football were enough to spark a passion that would last decades.
Villa were among the most prominent clubs in England at the time, having won the First Division title in 1981 and the European Cup the following year.
It is easy to understand how a club of that stature and ambition could capture the imagination of a football-mad youngster watching from abroad.
Pagliuca went on to become one of Italy’s most celebrated goalkeepers, representing clubs including Sampdoria, Internazionale, and Bologna across a distinguished career.
Despite his own achievements at the highest level of the game, his affection for the Birmingham club never dimmed throughout those years.
The former Italy international made a personal promise to his son that he would get an Aston Villa tattoo when the club won promotion back to the Premier League in 2019.
Villa secured their return to the top flight that year after beating Derby County in the Championship play-off final at Wembley, and Pagliuca duly kept his word.
That gesture speaks to the genuine and emotional connection Pagliuca has with Villa, going far beyond the kind of casual support that footballers sometimes profess for foreign clubs.
Aston Villa have since re-established themselves as a serious Premier League force, with the club competing in European competition in recent seasons under Unai Emery.
For supporters and admirers like Pagliuca, Villa’s resurgence at the top level of English football will feel like a long-awaited and richly deserved return to the spotlight.
