Remember when Panini "Americanized" Italian football teams? Tapping into the public's fascination with American sports

We are in the mid-1980s, a time when American cultural influence in Italy, which had been expanding over the previous decades, was becoming increasingly pervasive. From TV to cinema, from sports to music, and more generally in daily life: the spread of new technologies was making the crossing of the Atlantic much faster for various products and customs, which were being absorbed with growing familiarity on our side. In the sports realm, major professional leagues were starting to gain traction, particularly football and basketball. The NFL had made its TV debut in 1981, with the first Super Bowl broadcast on Canale 5 and then becoming a regular fixture on Mediaset networks in the following years; a novelty introduced to the Italian public by the now-familiar voices of Guido Bagatta, Rino Tommasi, and Flavio Tranquillo. More or less in parallel, the NBA also made its debut with the first historic game broadcast - delayed by two weeks - in January '81; on Pin (Prima Rete Indipendente), with commentary by Dan Peterson, to inaugurate the imminent golden age of the league globally, on the wings of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry and later the Bulls with Michael Jordan.

The result of the experiment still evokes mixed opinions among collectors and enthusiasts today. However, it is certain that the project has not received the recognition it deserves over time, at least in terms of creativity—setting aside subjective tastes. Today, our eyes are accustomed to the standards of digital graphics and artificial intelligence creations, so much so that we browse these archival albums in PDF format on our smartphones as if they were antiquities. Contextualizing a project, however, does not help to grasp its intrinsic meaning, especially in graphic design; and revisiting these 1986 stickers, we have an interesting testimony to the arrival of American sports in the Italian market, and concurrently, the first attempts—some more successful, others less so—to blend two cultures that were once very different and are now increasingly close. Imagine giving all this to the creative teams of current clubs, and perhaps having a Serie A match with American-style jerseys, names, and logos. Much like in the NBA and NFL, where we see "Noche Latina" or jerseys dedicated to Chinese New Year. Wouldn’t that be fascinating?