"WHAT'S THE POINT IN SAN MARINO PLAYING FOOTBALL?"

We all love an underdog in the United Kingdom - Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2016 or Mon Mome at odds of 100/1 winning the 2009 Grand National - Yet when it comes to International football many fans say "What's the point in San Marino even playing football?" as 'they are a small county' and as they are the lowest in the FIFA rankings "they shouldn't allowed to play International football." 

(They are currently ranked at 210 in the FIFA Ranking which is bottom of the table - They have got as high at 118 in September 1993) 

Surely on that argument then we should just have a Premier League and nothing else - none of the smaller so called less glamorous teams looking for that one slight bit of glory in a cup win or run, a last minute winner or just a victory in San Marino's case! 

Talking about San Marino International football and the game against England in 1993 will always get a mention with the famous goal scored by David Gualtieri after just 8.3 seconds which at the time was the fastest goal in World Cup Qualifying history. 

San Marino International Football is much more than that famous moment! 

Up until the election of Gibraltar in 2013 San Marino had the lowest population of any UEFA recognised country. Present figures show San Marino's estimated at 34,232 which is on a par population wise with Letchworth in Hertfordshire or Billingham in County Durham. 

So where is San Marino? It is a microstate completely enclosed by Italy around 10 km away from the Adriatic coast in Rimini in the East of Italy. It's officially known as the 'Republic of San Marino' and is the world's smallest republic - It is not a member of the European Union but does use the Euro as it's currency. It's one of only three countries in the world to be completely enclosed by another, is the third smallest country in Europe and the fifth smallest in the world. 

(The other countries enclosed are Vatican City (Italy) and Lesotho (South Africa)) 

(The countries smaller in Europe are Vatican City and Monaco)

(The world countries are Vatician City, Monaco, Nauru and Tuvalu)

The San Marino Football Federation was formed in 1931 but a full national team was not established until 1986 when a team played Canada's Olympic team in an unofficial game which they lost 0-1. They gained official FIFA and UEFA affiliation in 1988 and played their first sanctioned full International on Wednesday 14th November 1990 against Switzerland in a EURO 1992 qualifier - the result was a 0-4 defeat in front of a crowd of 931 at the Stadio Olimpico Di Serravalle.  

Giorgio Leoni was the manager for this game and sent out a starting XI consisting of goalkeeper Pierlugi Benedettini who went to gain 25 caps for his country. His son Simone Benedettini has since been capped 6 times as goalkeeper for San Marino and his nephew Elia Benedettini has 22 caps also as a goalkeeper. 

Lucca Gobbi (41 caps), Willam Guerra (38), Bruno Muccioli (10), Marco Montironi (5 caps), Massimo Bonini (19), Loris Zanotti (12), Massimo Ceccoli (5), Fabio Francini (34), Marco Macina (2) and Waldes Pasolini (14). 

Guerra was a painter and decorator by trade and stated prior to games against Wales in qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup that if San Marino takes a point off of Wales they he would paint all his friends houses for free. Wales won 6-0 in Cardiff and 5-0 in San Marino. 

Bonini and Macina remain the only two San Marino full Internationals ever to have played in Serie A. Bonini made 192 appearances for Juventus between 1981 to 1988 and 112 for Bologna between 1988 and 1992. Macini played for Bologna, Parma and AC Milan amongst other clubs. Although current plater Nicola Nanni is on the books of Crotone (who were promoted to Serie A for the 2020/21 season) - The 20 year old forward already has 12 caps to his name and is currently on loan at Serie C side Cesena. 

It took until March 1993 (and 14 games) for San Marino to get a positive result when they drew 0-0 at home to Turkey in a World Cup 1994 qualifier game with a crowd of 957 watching. 

It was then nearly a decade before they got another worthwhile result when in 2001 they drew 1-1 away in Latvia (crowd - 4000) in 2002 World Cup qualifier. Nicola Albani famously got his only goal for San Marino in this game. 

There was then a wait until 2014 when in a Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Estonia they achieved a 0-0 draw in front of 759. 

We then have to fast forward to their last match played in the UEFA Nations League at home to another European minnow country in Liechtenstein which also has a population of under 40,000. There was a small crowd of 178 at the Rheinpark Stadium to see another goal less draw. The statistics and highlights show San Marino played extremely well in this game and really should of recorded a monumental victory - they had 16 shots (4 on target) compared to Liechtenstein's 6 shots and 2 on target.

The match did make history as it was the first time San Marino had kept a clean sheet away from home ever! 

The recent squad was made up of players from San Marino Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio (Sammarinese Football Championship) and Itlian lower league club's Cesena, Tropical Coriano, Pietracuta, FYA Riccione and Marignanese.

The Sammarinese di Calcio has been won by Tre Fiori, Tre Penne and La Fiorita of late. SS Cosmos are one of the most interesting teams as they were formed in 1979 and named after the famous New York Cosmos 

ONE WIN IN FRIENDLY GAMES! 

San Marino don't play many friendly games but in 2003 and 2004 they did play Liechtenstein twice. In August 2003 they came back from being 2-0 down in the first 23 minutes to draw 2-2 at the Rheinpark Stadium and then on Wedneday 28th April 2004 it was their most famous game ever so far. A 1-0 victory in front of 200 at the Stadio Olimpico with their goal coming from Andy Selva who is arguably made himself the most famous Sammarinese player ever alongside David Gualtieri. His early sixth minute strike was the only goal of the game. 

Selva made a total of 74 appearances for San Marino and scored 8 goals in those games - Up until 2012 he was the only player ever to have scored over one goal for the county. 

He is the most capped player with 74 caps and 8 goals to his name. He is followed by DAMIANO VANNUCCI who has 68 caps. Both players have since retired with current players being twin brothers ALDO (62) and DAVIDE SIMONCINI (64). Aldo's last start for his country was in the 5-0 defeat in Russia in November 2019. He was not selected in the last round of games. Davide captained the side for the games in Gibraltar and at home to Liechtenstein but was not involved in the last two games. 

SAN MARINO'S record defeat came at home to Germany in 2006 in a Euro qualifier which ended 0-13 in front of 5,019 at the Stadio Olimpico. Lukas Podolski scored four goals in this game. 

Since there first official International in 1990 they have had five managers with Italian GIAMPAOLO MAZZA the longest serving between January 1998 to October 2013. His record was one win, three draws and seventy-nine defeats during his tenure. 

Since the beginning of 2010 San Marino have scored seven goals (five in competitive games). MANUEL MARANI and DANILO RINALDI scored in the 2012 2-3 friendly defeat to Malta which is only the second time they have scored twice in a game with the previous occasion being the 2003 friendly v Liechtenstein which ended 2-2. They have never scored over one goal in a competitive game. The rest of the decade's scorers were Alesaandro Della Valle (v Poland WCQ 2013), Matteo Vitaioli (2015 Euro Qualifier v Lithuania), Mattia Steffanelli (v Norway WCQ 2016), Mirko Palazzi (v Azerbaijain WCQ 2017) and their last goal scored Fillipo Berardi against Kazakhstan in a Euro Qualifier last November.  

MARANI had scored one of San Marino's most famous goals in February 2007 against a Republic of Ireland team featuring John O'Shea, Ian Harte, Richard Dunne, Damien Duff, Kevin Kilbane and Robbie Keane. His 86th minute goal made it 1-1 in a UEFA Euro Qualifier. He capitalised on a mix up in between Wayne Henderson and his defenders Dunne and Paul McShane to prod the ball goal-wards with it trickling over the line prompting scenes of huge celebration.  It looked to be a memorable night for San Marino but in the 94th minute Stephen Ireland scored a winner to break the hearts of the heroic San Marino side. 2,500 of the crowd of 3,294 were Ireland supporters that night. 

San Marino's playing record (as of the last game versus Liechtenstein is - 

COMP	P	W	D	L	GF-GA	GD	PTS
WCQ	66	0	2	64	11-310	-299	2
EURO Q	76	0	1	75	8-340	-332	1
UEFA NATIONS	9	0	1	8	0-19	-19	1
FRIENDLY	16	1	1	14	5-42	-37	-
OVERALL	167	1	5	162	24-711	-687	-

The new UEFA Nation's League (as shown above) has given teams in the lowest ranks some chance of winning games, getting positive results and progressing as they now play regularly against each other in competitive games. 

So with the 0-0 draw in Liechtenstein the squad will be looking to get a result in their forthcoming friendly against Latvia (137) on Wednesday 11th November and in their next UEFA Nations League at home to Gibraltar (195 - the nearest ranked UEFA team to San Marino) on Saturday 14th November - they narrowly lost 1-0 in Gibraltar in early September with the shots total being 12 for the home side and 5 for the visitors. 

Could Franco Varrella's squad grab worldwide headlines in getting their first competitive win in the next few months?

And in answer to the question which many fans who are  ask "What's the point in San Marino playing football?" - Ask Andy Selva, Manuel Marani or Giampaolo Mazzi or any of the recent squad who achieved that 0-0 result in Liechtenstein - they is every right for San Marino to be playing International football and long may they continue.