Here’s the new AC Milan players’ shirt for the 2011-2012 Serie A Italian football season. The likely winners of this year’s scudetto, the club has released its new AC Milan jersey early, showing a radical departure from the current style. Players modelling the debut shirt were Clarence Seedorf, Mark Van Bommel and Luca Antonini, although the real man of the moment, Alexandre Pato was absent.

We say “man of the moment” because he is currently the media’s favourite player on the Italian circuit, both for scoring goals at the Milan football derby, and for dating Barbara Berlusconi. The new AC Milan strip is inspired by the early 1900’s and has probably been made to anticipate a defending champion title next season. In fact, the shirt has a vintage look with thinner, two-centimetre stripes compared to the current nine-centimetre design.

AC Milan is also playing on its international status, with a white collar, Associazione Calcio Milan written on the back, and a small tricolore Italian flag to indicate the club’s status of world famous Italian symbol (their words). Beyond the looks, the Adidas-made shirt will have two versions: a standard version and a body-hugging version that improves player performance. The new AC Milan guernsey will debut on May 15, at the last 2011 Serie A home match when the club will possibly win this year’s championship (if it hasn’t already by then).

Continue reading: AC Milan new players' shirt

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Italian sports stars apparrently don’t get much bigger than Valentino Rossi. After his move to Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati for the 2011 MotoGP season, it turns out Rossi is also the most highly paid Italian sports star around. It’s quite an unusual honour for a motorcycle racer, with this kind of ranking usually reserved for Italian football players.

What’s more, the list of international sports star salaries by country from ESPN includes just this one entry from the world of motorcycle racing. Rossi’s national and international appeal is hard to beat, and the new deal with Ducati and the marketing clout it brings will probably see him earn more in the future, whatever his fortunes on the track might be.

Rossi took home 14.3 million euros last year (20.8 million USD) and although his 2011 season so far isn’t turning out to be the dream Ducati start many fans hoped for, he will continue to be Italy’s favourite sports star through the sheer strength of his personality; and is probably partly paid for that charisma, too.

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Italian footballer playing for Manchester City, Mario Balotelli, hasn’t had much chance to show his talent on the field, with recent weeks marred by on-pitch brawls and gossip of being thrown out of nightclubs and fighting with bouncers. England’s tabloid The Sun has been closely following the Balotelli City career in true tabloid style.

They’ve reported on the Balotelli Nike Footlocker ad (see it on YouTube), saying: “Although colourful Mario may struggle putting on a footie training bib, he can do a decent TV promo.” Then there was the piece on the Ferdinand-Balotelli bust-up due to Mario apparently teasing Manchester United fans after it lost the FA Cup semi final to City.

As Roberto Mancini says, “it’s always Mario fault” but the Italian player is certainly having a successful time on the publicity front (if you agree with the notion that no publicity is bad publicity). But one moment of generosity in a sea of money and sordid gossip was reported by the Sun as Balotelli apparently won £25,000 at the casino, and the promptly gave 1000 of it to a homeless person.

Continue reading: Mario Balotelli Nike Footlocker ad and 1000 pounds to homeless

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Italian football player and Rome veteran, Francesco Totti, is selling his 500 m2 attic. Amusing gossip from Italy though, says that the captain of the “giallorossi” - red and yellow team - would like to eliminate certain prospective clients from the list. According to Panorama magazine, the Italian real estate ad goes as follows:

“For sale: 500 m2 attic with terrace and swimming pool, large jacuzzi and relax zone. 5,300,000 euros negotiable, no time wasters or Lazio fans.”

It seems the old Italian football rivalry of Rome-Lazio goes beyond just soccer. So if you have a spare five million euros but are a Lazio fan, you had best look elsewhere for your luxury apartment. In the photo is Totti years back on his wedding day with Ilary Blasi.

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Antonio Cassanoand his wife Carolina Marcialis have just welcomed Christopher, their first child; the couple who got married last June is over the moon with happiness; the baby who weighs more than 3 kilos was born in Genoa yesterday morning. The news was announced on the AC Milanwebsite and quickly spread through the net; famous for his cassanate, the Italian football player is slowly turning into a positive role model as a father and husband. We are sure that he will dedicate his next goal (maybe next Sunday against Sampadoria, his former club) to his son.

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Mario Balotelli’s extraordinary talent seems to have spent less time on the field of English football than his difficult personality has in their tabloid papers. And it’s not just football controversy that is plaguing the Italian player, but his other extra-curricular activities which have even gotten fellow Italian and Manchester City coach, Roberto Mancini, offside.

So when he can, Mario Balotelli escapes to Milan, where he was recently spotted with former Miss Italy contestant, Sara Galimerti. The two apparently “met” on Facebook and then spent a night dining and dancing together. Galimerti participated in the 2009 Miss Italy contest as Miss Lombardy and follows hot on the heels of another Sara: the now famous Sara Tommasi - Balotelli’s “ex-girlfriend” and current Italian showgirl.

Source | Gossipblog.it

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When it comes to the Italian language, the locals know how to get creative. They can make swear words into nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs and the results are generally quite funny and more often than not, become part of the national vernacular. After the weekend’s Milan football derby between AC Milan and FC Internazionale, though, we get another term called the “cassanata”.

The term refers to AC Milan football player (previously with Sampdoria) Antonio Cassano and his spontaneous folly which often gets him into trouble. Doing something silly in Italian can now be referred to as the “cassanata”. After the weekend’s match, for example, in the total of about a minute Cassano managed to score a goal, get a yellow card and then be sent off with a red.

The reason? Cassano scored a penalty goal against Inter to make the final score of 3-0 and in his euforia, took his shirt off, earning himself a yellow card. After a few more seconds of play, he made a foul on another player, got a second yellow card and therefore a red, and was sent off. If you’re familiar with the colourful character of Cassano, none of that will be a surprise to you. In a post-match interview, Cassano says:

“Mine is a world record: goal, booking and send-off in one minute, although I’m happy to have participated in the history of the Milan derby; that way, I’ve scored in five derbies in five different cities. While I was trying to defend against Cordoba, I was convinced I had got a yellow, but I was so happy over the goal that I forgot I had just been booked: it was a naive thing to do and I’ll pay for it. I’ve done plenty of naive things in my career and hope I’ll always do less.”

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The Milan local football derby on Saturday night saw AC Milan and FC Internazionale battle in a match that will likely mark the eventual winning championship team. AC Milan won 3-0, punishing FC Inter’s bad defence and tentative play. Current AC Milan favourite on the Italian football scene, Alexandre Pato, scored two of those three goals, apparently dedicating them to his new girlfriend, Barbara Berlusconi, who is also vice president of the club.

Berlusconi (the daughter, not Silvio), watched from the stands as Pato scored, and seemed pleased but composed. In the post-match press conference, the media asked what Pato’s gesture of grabbing his shirt around the heart meant. The diplomacy we talked about yesterday was needed as Pato was asked who he dedicated the goals to.

He says:

“To all our fans, especially those who have always come to the stadium even when things don’t go so well.”

But the journalists were obviously not content to leave it there, asking if the goals weren’t dedicated to someone special, close to him at the moment. And Pato tries answering:

Continue reading: Pato dedicates goals to Barbara Berlusconi in AC Milan derby victory

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The Barbara Berlusconi and Alexandre Pato love story continues after their first public kiss and more than one occasion spotted together in public. The football player and AC Milan star is finding himself under scrutiny for his relationship with the club’s young, female vice president, and the love story is the current favourite topic of gossip from Italy.

These pics show the couple out and about in Milan, as the Brazilian footballer and Silvio Berlusconi’s daughter took in a modern art exhibition in the city. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Pato made the following statements on being pressed about his separation from his first wife and current relationship with Berlusconi’s more famous daughter:

Can we please avoid this topic? [that of his divorce from model Sthefany Brito] I can say that my happiness is very important to me and that at the moment, I’m happy.

Following the question if Barbara Berlusconi is contributing to that happiness:

Barbara Berlusconi and Alexandre Pato together

Continue reading: Barbara Berlusconi and Alexandre Pato: pics as AC Milan love story continues

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Former Italian football player with AC Milan, Billy Costacurta, has been the subject of unpleasant rumours in Italy of late, which suggested that his wife, Martina Colombari, had been cheating on him. The rumour was spread by Tgcom and if Colombari’s denials are to be believed it has created a storm in a tea cup (more a very large cup for those involved, we imagine).

Both on television and on a recent radio program, Martina Colombari has denied the rumours she cheated on Costacurta, saying:

I haven’t betrayed my husband. This news has kicked up a lot of dust and has upset my grandparents and great grandparents. After seven years of being together, we had about seven or eight months in which we had a break from each other, and I had a relationship with someone else, and so did he. At the time we weren’t even married and so he was not my husband. It was a time of reflection.

Technically speaking then, Colombari is right, but she needs to be careful with certain statements left to the media (especially as a footballer’s wife) as it was she who had said in the first place: “I haven’t been cheated on, but I have cheated and been forgiven.” Colombari is now the wife of Billy Costacurta and they have a son, Achille.

Source | TgCom

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