NOT Another San Marino Story

Special Update: The Defectors

How many times I've ranted about my coveted starlets with dual nationality snubbing San Marino to take their chances with Italy? Well unfortunately nothing has changed as of 2019. Some of them have actually won caps for various Italian youth squads - U19/U20/U21 - while many others are simply rejecting SM even if Italy doesn't really give a **** about them. Stupid delusional SM youth...


There's a whole 20-man squad of defectors that could really change the future of SMNT, here I'll show you the best Sammarinese youngsters who are/have been part of Italy U21, the highest youth level of the Azzurri.

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Matteo Leonardi, Gianluca Macina and Alessandro Paolone would easily be my first choice attacking trio for the NT and could soon become regulars for the club as well. I truly believe Paolone could already win Serie A Top Scorer as our first choice striker. Talented teenager Lazzaro Dessì is already part of Italy U21 at only 17, which says a lot about his skills and potential.

As you can see many of these players are 'exiled' abroad as I get them some first team experience while also trying to keep them under the radar - I certainly don't want to give Italy an excuse to cap them at senior level! Our feeder club Slovan Liberec seems a good destination for the Defectors, who get valuable playing time and use Slovan's good facilities while playing in a decent yet unfashionable league... sounds just perfect to me!

I'll probably have to wait until these players turn 23-24 before they realise they have no future with Italy at senior level, and they embrace The Great San Marino Project. Until then I'll do everything in my powers - which unfortunately for them is A LOT - to prevent them from being capped for Italy. If this means I have to destroy a couple of bright careers in the process... so be it!​
 
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National Team Year 2019: Part I

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San Marino still doing a great job in the qualifying group as we faced three important home fixtures to start 2019 and keep our EURO 2020 dream alive.

The 2-1 win against a superior Turkey team was a huge result for us and could make a world of a difference for our EURO quest. I was also very pleased to beat Estonia so easily, it really shows how much we have progressed as a national team in the years. Denmark eventually defeated us at the Olimpico, Nicklas Bendtner was everywhere as the Danes scored an easy win. It was probably the first time in two years that a San Marino team - club or country - had suffered a loss at the Olimpico!


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San Marino still on top of their group as of June 2019 but it's a pretty close affair as you can see. Future fixtures against Azerbaijan and Estonia should give us a nice boost, hopefully this could be enough to nail at least 2nd place which would mean an automatic spot for EURO Championships. Anything can still happen at this point, though I have to say I'm liking our chances right now!


In other news local Sammarinese leagues seem to make lots of progress every year and have now reached semi-respectable levels:

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Still a long way to go but this is some amazing improvement considering they started around 900th, and all Sammarinese clubs are still amateur as of June 2019. Hopefully they'll start producing some decent local players at some point...


Next update with a quick recap of an(other) excellent 2018/19 season for the club, then back to the NT!​
 
Not had much game time recently. My 1st 2 seasons have been ok in serie a. 17th 1st season. 10th second season. Though most annoying thing was my facillilites had some sort of upgrade for the 1st time and the work was complete by november come end of the season they had been downgraded by advances in technology what in 7 months!. Tsk
 
Brilliant stuff mate, I just wish I had the talent to get to the stage where the club becomes easy and it becomes focused on the NT. Loving your way of keeping them out of the Italy National Team haha!
 
Valenciaa said:
Brilliant stuff mate, I just wish I had the talent to get to the stage where the club becomes easy and it becomes focused on the NT. Loving your way of keeping them out of the Italy National Team haha!
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thanks mate and yeah those defectors can spend next 10 seasons on loan between Israel and Cyprus for all I care hahaha
 
Just read through this amazing:)My only question is how did you start of with both a national side + club side?
 
wonderkid360 said:
Just read through this amazing:)My only question is how did you start of with both a national side + club side?
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thanks, I started as NT manager then immediately added/retired a new manager at the club and applied for the vacant job. Wanted to start with both jobs from day one, I like being the one and only San Marino Supremo ;)
 
Club Season 2018/19: Threepeat

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In the meantime there's a San Marino club still winning everywhere in Italy, Europe and more...

Three consecutive titles in Serie A and Champions League for the Titani, with San Marino quickly becoming one of the richest, most reputable and famous football clubs in whole world. Success in both Super Cups and FIFA Club World Cup completed another extremely productive season for the Titani.

Serie A is getting way too easy for us, which is quite strange as the likes of Napoli and Inter keep making fantastic signings and boast top quality squads but they can't seem to put it all together when it matters. Champions League proved to be much more of a challenge, with a new chapter of the San Marino-Lyon rivalry and an entertaining (and much deserved) 4-3 win vs Bayern in the final.

Fabio was our Fans POY as he reached icon status for the club, while all the Serie A awards went to San Marino players this year. Wonderkid Alex was on pace to beat every scoring record for both San Marino and Serie A before a season-ending injury in March. He still finished as Serie A Top Scorer with 28 goals in only 23 matches.

Our youth setup has become one of the best in whole Europe as we keep producing great prospects every year, hopefully the NT will take advantage of that in the future - ie when all the defectors embrace SMNT project. The U20 squad won another youth title (I think it's four in a row, maybe five...) and in 2019/20 they will compete in U20 Champions League for the first time, probably based on club reputation.


In all honesty it's getting hard to do club updates at this point, might consider skipping them altogether in the future... I think it will be very hard not to win Serie A like FOREVER, while CL is more about luck esp in knockout rounds. I don't even care much about results tbh, just want to confirm our status of Serie A favourites to keep the board happy and gradually implement a "cantera policy". For next year I project to use my best SMNT prospects - Luca Tagliani, Niko Micheli and Fabio Scarano - as regular rotation players, getting them at least 20 games with first team between league and cups.A decent all-SM squad for the club wouldn't even be that far IF I could use the infamous defectors...
​
 
Don't want you to skip out club updates as they are still interesting. Hope the defectors embrace the NT soon and keep it up they'll lose eventually.
 
gogogo golem said:
Don't want you to skip out club updates as they are still interesting. Hope the defectors embrace the NT soon and keep it up they'll lose eventually.
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it's very hard to find new motivations with the club, currently I'm playing zombie-mode (ie no match highlights, only commentary on very fast) except for NT matches.

Only thing that could bring back interest for me would be playing only SM players for the club, but I can't do that right now as that would surely lead Italy to call most of my dual nationality players for their senior team, while only 4-5 of current SM internationals are good enough to play at serie A level. It's tough mate...

NT update coming up tonight.
 
National Team Year 2019: Part II

Time to make it or break for San Marino as the mighty SMNT face the last four games of qualifying group in their quest for EURO 2020. It's top two to gain an automatic spot for the European Championships, while third place would send us to the Playoff russian roulette which is somethnig I'd gladly avoid.


This wasn't the best thing that could happen just a few days before our big matches:

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Key midfielder Antonio Ciarrocchi broke his leg during his loan spell with Hapoel and will be out for 6-8 months. Absolutely devastating, but we just had to keep going.


September

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Yeah baby! The 4-2 win in Ireland was simply fantastic. 2-0 San Marino after four minutes, then Ireland make it 2-2 so late in the game. Veteran striker Mattia Stefanelli becomes a national hero scoring the vital 3-2, then skipper Luca Tagliani seals the final 4-2 in injury time! This was probably our best performance as a NT, in what was probably the most important game ever for San Marino. An easy 3-0 win against Azerbaijan followed, and EURO 2020 never looked so close for SM...


October

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And there we go! The 6-0 win against a weak Estonia side officially sent us to European Championships! A 2-0 loss in Turkey didn't hurt us much as San Marino managed to finish first in qualifying group. Great job!


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It was a very even group with no real super powers, I have to say I'm really proud of our 1st place though. Turkey came 2nd while Ireland eventually made it to the EUROS after playoffs. Denmark, the strongest team in this group in my opinion, finished with a disappointing 4th place.


The draw for Belgium 2020 took place before the end of the year:

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So it will be Belarus, Portugal and Switzerland. Interesting group really. I'd say Belarus should be the less dangerous team for us, if they weren't current World Cup holders... I'm just happy we made it to the EUROs tbh, we'll be there to learn from the experience and showcase our young talent.

I'm hoping some of the Defectors can maybe jump on SM bandwagon now and take this chance of playing in a major international tournament. That would be HUGE for both club and NT future development.

See you in Belgium next year ;)​
 
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Please give us match by match updates for the Euros. You should hopefully get more luck with the defectors too now you're in the Euros.
 
Definitely updates like suggested above would be awesome. Also stuff on how you're looking to prepare in the build up to the tournament. Good luck mate!
 
kandersson said:
sure I can do that :)
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wouild it be possible to include the WR of the team you are facing when it comes to national team games as there probably have been a few power shifts by now and like you said with belerus winning the world cup, what would normally be considered the easiest team for you to beat could be the hardest there and it could be the otherway.
 
National Team: EURO 2020 Build Up

It's EURO-fever in San Marino as the national team is busy preparing their debut in a major international tournament. Can we really compete at the highest international level after our excellent form in the qualifying group? Pre-EURO friendlies, NT camps, squad dilemmas, injury crisis, tactical adjustments and of course the same old Defectors Drama: lots of things to sort out for SMNT before leaving for Belgium...



Pre-Euro Friendlies

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Mixed results for San Marino approching European Championships: we slightly raised the bar facing other national teams in the 30-50th range in FIFA rankings (which is where we currently stand) and we actually struggled a bit against solid yet unspectacular Canada and Australia teams. Things went better with Uzbekistan and Bahrain as we found the net with more efficiency while also testing new players for the final 23-man squad.


The Squad

The big question was always the same: how many of the dual-nationality Defectors would finally embrace San Marino now that we can offer them the EURO international showcase? And the answer is... ZERO! Can you believe it, none of those delusional creeps was prepared to accept the call-up for SMNT! And not only that actually:

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Boasting a grand total of two sub appearences for San Marino club (including ZERO in the league) famous defector Matteo Leonardi was shockingly included in the 30-man preliminary squad for Italy! He didn't make the final squad, but this only confirmed my thoughts and theories on my dual nationality players: I really NEED to loan them out at less reputable clubs and keep them under the radar until they accept SM, otherwise Italy will gladly call-up any eligible prospects from worldwide powerhouse San Marino club. I decided to keep Leonardi in Serravalle this year as I wanted to get him some valuable tutoring, wouldn't imagine that after a season playing for our U20 squad he could make Italy senior squad...

So our final San Marino squad will be pretty much same as usual:

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Many familiar faces plus a few youngsters from latest youth intake, though in the end this is basically the squad from the qualifying round - not that they did bad there. Goalkeeper Carlo Vignoli, centre back Luca Tagliani and anchor man Niko Micheli are always the backbone of our team and lead a very respectable defensive unit. Unfortunately Tagliani is still recovering from a torn calf and will be out for at least first two games which is TERRIBLE news. Might have to shift Niko at CB and get decent midfielder Simone Foresti back into starting line-up at MC, as we don't have other reliable options at centre back.

Up-front our strategy will be very simple: get the ball to classy playmaker Fabio Scarano and hopefully he can create scoring chances for prolific striker Manel Di Marco.

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Scarano comes from a very good season at the club, with 33 apps and 8 goals for the first team as he became part of our regular rotation at AMR. He improved a lot this year while also learning a ridiculous number of excellent PPM's from the veteran midfielders at our club, and at 20 he still has much room for improvement. If only I could develop all the best SM prospects that way... Di Marco has apparently hit his ceiling this year (spent another season on loan at H.Haifa), he's obviously a very good striker for SM standards and knows how to bang them in at any level, though he'll probably never be a legit international class striker. Still very happy to have him though, he enters EURO 2020 as Top Scorer of EURO qualifying stages while also boasting an insane tally of 53 goals in 44 matches for the NT!


EURO Expectations

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I'm still not sure what to expect from this group honestly. Entering EURO 2020 at 45th place in FIFA Rankings (we have been as high as 34th this year though) we are the worst-ranked NT in our group: traditional powerhouse Portugal, up and coming Swiss and World Champions (!?) Belarus all look stronger than Cinderella team San Marino, none of them are looking really unplayable though. I wouldn't be surprised finishing with three losses, at the same time I wouldn't be that shocked if we can steal the second spot. And certainly I like the attitude of our captain Giacomo Fabbrini!



Next updates soon with almost real-time match day experience ;)​
 
Shame bout those defectors not embracing the NT bt hopefully you can do well

awesome cant wait mate good luck!
 
The defectors won't join up because you have really low national reputation. So if you win the EUROS and Italy get hammered that would decrease the problem as you have an increase in national reputation while Italy have a decrease but if you get hammered and Italy smash everyone the problem will get worse.
 
gogogo golem said:
The defectors won't join up because you have really low national reputation. So if you win the EUROS and Italy get hammered that would decrease the problem as you have an increase in national reputation while Italy have a decrease but if you get hammered and Italy smash everyone the problem will get worse.
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well no way it can get worse than this XD. There was a moment we were 34th and Italy 26th in FIFA rankings, don't know if we'll ever get that close again tbh...

funnily there are quite a few Sammarinese/Argentine regens in local SM league that "would only accept a call-up from San Marino at this time", which would be great if they weren't absolutely rubbish... I think it's a matter of player's PA, club reputation and NT reputation altogether. I'll probably have to wait until defectors turn 24 (and have not been capped for another country) before they embrace SM, not sure I have the patience to go on until then.


Update after dinner when I'll play first game of EURO 2020 :)
 
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