San Marino’s miracle continues, historic away success and record in the group

At the beginning of September he had already written a page of history by winning his first official match with a 1-0 over Liechtenstein in the Serravalle Olympic stadium. Now San Marino, the Cinderella of world football, has written another one by achieving its first away success which even gave it first place in the group and qualification for League C of the Nations League. The 3-1 comeback victory in Vaduz, again against Liechtenstein, gives the Titans two more records in their history: three goals in a single match and victory with a two-goal difference. Lazzari, Nanni and Alessandro Golinucci scored the goals that ensured San Marino overtook Gibraltar at the top and a certainly unexpected finish.

The protagonist of the feat is the coach Roberto Cevoli, a 55-year-old coach from Rimini, former Novara, who has focused on a team full of Under 20s. In this Nations League, San Marino was 210th in the FIFA rankings (last ahead of only Eritrea who finished outside ranking) with 199 games lost out of 211. Liechenstein is in 200th place. The growth of San Marino’s football movement passes through the green line, cutting-edge fields and stadiums and commercial partnerships.

A recent report by Deloitte revealed that the federation boasts 1733 members: 112 are women, 523 play in the national Academy. In fact, the 15 clubs in San Marino all have a first team, a 5-a-side football team and a youth sector starting from the Under 12s. The SM Academy offers free transport services to reach the sports centres. The national team, in 2022/2023, recorded an increase in the value of the squad: 1.3 million euros in total.

Of the 38 players called up, over two thirds play in the local league. The same goes for the Under 21 team, which also draws (over 10%) from the Excellence groups of the Italian FIGC. There are nine football pitches with the flagship of the San Marino Stadium with the latest generation semi-synthetic pitch: 4,500 covered seats and six changing rooms. Many pitches have been renovated in the last three years with funding from FIFA (5.8 million) and UEFA (28.5 million).