Marocchino is a racial slur in Italy. It literally means someone from Morocco—a Moroccan—but it is used as a derogatory name for any North African immigrant, someone dark and Arab looking, and there are many in Italy, especially in the South. Tunis is 200 km from the Sicilian town of Marsala; the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa is a mere 100 km from the North Africa coast, and attracts thousands of immigrants each year, who arrive in rafts and makeshifts boats seeking a better life.
Meanwhile the man on the left is the toast of Florence. His shirt has replaced Mario Gomez’ and Giuseppe Rossi’s in the stalls of the sidewalk vendors; a pizza has been named after him; a heart has been etched on the door of his apartment near Ponte Vecchio. He is routinely referred to in the local media as the Egyptian Messi, or simply the Pharaoh, the man who is saving Fiorentina’s season, and in fact is the same person as in the first picture. |
He is Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian, who arrived in Florence in February during the mid-season transfer window and he is the same person as in the first picture. In his first twelve appearances he had already scored seven goals, the same number that ‘Super’ Mario Gomez, the highly paid but under-achieving center-forward has scored all season, and more goals than the person he replaced, Juan Cuadrado. The crowning moment of his short reign in Florence was when he scored the two goals that beat Fiorentina’s arch-rival, Juventus in an away match on March 5, the first time Juventus had lost to an Italian team at home in forever.
On February 22, I dragged my wife to an evening match, Fiorentina against Torino, to see Salah. I explained to her how special he was to this team and the fans, to take note of the buzz and chatter in the stadium whenever he touched the ball. To our dismay Salah was not in the starting line. But a distinct murmur went around the stadium when he was sent to warm up at the beginning of the second half; it got louder when he was finally summoned to enter the game in the 66th minute, and it was absolute pandemonium when he delivered a goal in the 85th minute. He raced to a corner of the field and was greeted by throngs of fans who sprinted from all over the stands to show him their appreciation. In that moment, the word marocchino was the farthest thing from anyone’s mind. That is the power of sports.