"In the summer of 2002, Angelo Di Livio was competing at the World Cup in the shiny new stadiums of Japan and Korea. A couple of months later, he was playing in the Italian fourth division at grounds that held barely 4,000 people. This was not a dramatic fall from grace, however — this was his choice.
"Just a year after winning the Coppa Italia, Fiorentina were declared bankrupt. Their miserable final season, 2001-02, ended in relegation from Serie A, which had seemed likely from the moment in September that Enrico Chiesa suffered a season-ending knee injury. With financial problems obvious, Di Livio, the captain, spent most of the season acting as an intermediary between the club’s directors and the fans."
In Episode Ninety Three of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit "In Appreciation of Angelo di Livio" by Michael Cox, first published in Issue Three in December 2011.
Issue Three, like all issues of the Blizzard, is available for £12 plus postage on www.theblizzard.co.uk. Since we’ve relaunched the website, all our articles, including this one, are available to read for free. Non-subscribers get 3 free articles a month, while subscribers have unlimited advert-free browsing, as well as access to digital downloads of all our issues in eBook formats.
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