Italian Hammers
West Ham United have been represented by nine Italian players in the Club’s history.
The first was also the most successful, Paolo Di Canio, who scored 51 goals in 141 eventful appearances between January 1999 and May 2003.
The Rome-born forward helped the Irons finish fifth in his first half-season, seventh in 2001/02, but then ended his career in Claret and Blue by suffering relegation in his final campaign in east London.
Five years later, newly-appointed Italian manager Gianfranco Zola signed compatriot David Di Michele on a season-long loan from Torino. The forward marked his home debut with two goals in a Premier League win over Newcastle United.
July 2009 saw Alessandro Diamanti arrive on a permanent transfer from Livorno. The flamboyant forward spent just one season in Claret and Blue, but marked it by being voted runner-up to Scott Parker in the Hammer of the Year voting.
West Ham’s next Italian signings were less memorable – Antonio Nocerino and Marco Borriello both arrived in January 2014, but departed months later without having made an impression, while striker Simone Zaza’s spell was also short-lived following his arrival from Juventus in August 2016.
In between, Angelo Ogbonna also arrived from Juventus in summer 2015 and the defender has become a real fans’ favourite during his eight seasons in east London.
Ogbonna has been joined in E20 this season by two fellow Italy internationals, left-back Emerson and striker Gianluca Scamacca, who have joined from Olympique Lyonnais and Sassuolo respectively.
Floodlit friendlies and American adventures
West Ham United’s first-ever meeting with Italian opposition was one to forget, in all honesty.
After the floodlights had been switched on at the Boleyn Ground in April 1953, the Hammers hosted regular evening challenge matches against European opposition. On 14 December 1954, it was the turn of AC Milan to visit.
The visitors had finished third in Serie A the previous season and were on their way to winning the title at the end of the 1954/55 campaign. As such, considering West Ham were then a Second Division side, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Milan won the game 6-0, with the Swedish duo Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm running riot.
Our next meeting with Italian opposition came in June 1963, when we were beaten 4-2 by Mantova in the International Soccer League in Chicago. The summer tournament, which was first held in 1960, was an attempt to establish association football in the United States by inviting European clubs to send teams to compete. Despite the defeat, West Ham finished top of their group and defeated Górnik Zabrze 2-1 on aggregate to win the overall title.
The defeats to Italian sides kept coming, as Bologna won two friendly matches hosted in the space of three days in June 1971. North America was again the venue, with the first game being played in Toronto and the second in New York.
It became six defeats out of six when ACF Fiorentina defeated the Irons 1-0 home and away to win the Anglo-Italian League Cup in late 1975 (see below), then seven out of seven when Serie A champions Sampdoria destroyed the Hammers 6-1 at Highbury in the pre-season Makita International Tournament in August 1991.
After losing to Cremonese, our first win over Italian opposition came at the ninth attempt, in the Anglo-Italian Cup, when Serie B side Reggiana were beaten 2-0 at the Boleyn Ground in November 1992!
Fast forward 14 years and Palermo proved too strong over two legs in the UEFA Cup first round in September 2006, before the following summer saw us lose to Lazio (0-2) and defeat AS Roma (2-1) in pre-season matches. August 2009 saw Napoli win the Bobby Moore Cup with a 1-0 victory at the Boleyn Ground.
August 2014 saw the Hammers gain belated revenge on Sampdoria with a 3-2 pre-season win, before Juventus provided the opposition for the official opening of London Stadium in August 2016, winning 3-2 despite two goals from Andy Carroll.
And our most-recent meeting with Italian opposition came at the same venue exactly five years later, on 7 August 2021, when Michail Antonio and Pablo Fornals were on target in a 2-0 Betway Cup win over Atalanta.
Anglo-Italian Cups
West Ham United were one of dozens of English and Italian clubs who competed with and against one another in two now-defunct competitions at the end of the previous century.
Set up in 1969, the Anglo-Italian League Cup was a short-lived two-legged ‘final’ which pitted the English League Cup or FA Cup winner against the Coppa Italia holders. It was held five times between 1969 and 1976, with FA Cup holders West Ham taking on Coppa Italia holders ACF Fiorentina in the 1975 edition. The Italians won both legs 1-0.
The Anglo-Italian Cup was introduced in 1970 to help boost players’ wages during a summer close-season extended by the FIFA World Cup finals. Swindon Town won the inaugural tournament, defeating Napoli in the final.
The tournament was halted in 1973, reintroduced for semi-professional clubs in 1976, renamed the Alitalia Challenge Cup in 1978, the Talbot Challenge Cup in 1981 and the Gigi Peronace Memorial, in honour of the man who organised it, in 1982.
After being discontinued in 1986, the Anglo-Italian Cup returned in 1992 with all 24 second-tier English teams and eight Italian Serie B clubs taking part. West Ham qualified from their three-team group by virtue of a coin toss ahead of Bristol Rovers to reach the international stage.
There, Billy Bonds’ Hammers lost 2-0 in Cremonese before defeating Reggiana 2-0 and Cosenza 1-0, only for a goalless draw with Pisa at the Boleyn Ground to see them eliminated behind eventual winners Derby County.
