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Giorgio Tavecchio, the Italian of American football enters a movie

“If you want to play this year you can do it in a movie.” The proposal thus came to Giorgio Tavecchio and he caught it. The 30-year-old Italian who plays football in the American league is the kicker, practically the footballer of American football, in Safety – Always by your side by Reginald Hudlin, film released in December on the Disney + platform. “From sport to cinema practically playing a game”.

Tavecchio had remained in Atlanta after being cut from the local team and a former teammate told him that they were looking for a player for one of the matches within the film. “I had never done it or even thought of doing it, but sports movies are very popular here and I was curious,” explains the thirty-year-old who grew up in California with an American mother and a Lombard father.

In the end it was almost more difficult than a real match. “The others were acting, but I only had one opportunity to kick the ball and score, because the timing of the shooting, in the interval of a real match, in front of 85 thousand spectators, they allowed nothing else. If I was wrong I would have ruined the scene. We trained for a month and a half to shoot the actions perfectly in the few minutes we had, “he says.

More than any other sport, football represents America and very often it has done so through films that tell the sport. Safety (the title comes from the role of tackler of the defense line) retrace the true story of Ray Ray McElrathbey, A 19-year-old African American aspiring star on the Clemson University football team who, in 2016, became the guardian of his 11-year-old brother, who was left alone after their drug addict mother was arrested. First he hides the boy on campus, then he is helped by the coach and teammates, an extended brotherhood that becomes a family.

It’s David versus Goliath, the boy who manages to overcome all obstacles, American philosophy and football philosophy which has not always been Giorgio Tavecchio’s sport. «As a kid I played football, I was a huge Inter fan. In high school a friend asked me if I wanted to kicker and that’s where my football career began ».

He loves this sport because of its philosophy. “It may seem 11 vs 11 attacking, but if you understand the rules you understand strategy and logic. The attacking team decides the strategy and the others deploy the defense. The game stops constantly ». These are the rules on the field, but there are also outside: from the limited number of players and to the ceiling on the possibility of spending. “All the players in the team they are under contract, but this contract can be broken at any time. In January, when the season ends, the squad rose from 53 to 90 players. It is used for competition. From April to June we train. With the 4 friendlies in August the season resumes, in September there is the official one and the squad returns to 53 players. Those cut lose their contract. If you don’t play, you don’t get paid. She is very American, but it doesn’t happen in other sports ».

While waiting to be recalled by a team, for two years he has had an import company of gastronomy products from Italy. He is an entrepreneur outside of football while continuing to train. Three times a week in the gym and as many on the pitch. “Not an obligation, but a way to live better”.

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