Italian defenders Chiellini and Bonucci take centre stage for the Azzurri in run to Euro 2020 final

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This article was published 09/07/2021 (1913 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“… Siam pronti alla morte,

l’Italia chiamò! Sì!”

Bono likely thinks his voice provided the soundtrack to Europe’s unforgettable summer of soccer. Alas, the U2 frontman’s hubris would be wildly misplaced. Sure Bono sings Euro 2020’s official song but its unofficial anthem instead comes roaring and rasping off the vocal cords of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci.

The rest of the Italian team chimes in, as does the backroom team, thousands of Azzurri fans in the stands and those back home and far from home. But it is Chiellini and Bonucci who are undoubtedly, emphatically the lead vocalists. Italy’s national anthem, an earworm that first hit the airwaves in 1847, half a century before airwaves were invented, has climbed back to the top of soccer’s charts this past month. Roberto Mancini’s reborn Italian side belts it out with such fervour that the ceremonial song has become almost a cultural spectacle of its own.

The anthem tells a lot about this team. There are signals of how seminal a part Chiellini and Bonucci have played in Italy’s rebirth and run all the way to Sunday’s mouth-watering final showdown with England at London’s Wembley Stadium. The iconic defensive pairing are more than just veterans, they are spiritual leaders. As Italy looks for just its second continental crown, they are the bedrock on which it is all built.

When the team lines up for “Fratelli D’Italia,” Chiellini as captain is first in line. But Bonucci makes a point of going to the opposite end, second last, and wrapping the diminutive Lorenzo Insigne in his grasp. As they belt out those final two lines — translated to “We are ready to die, Italy called! Yes!” — Bonucci leans in and glares all the way up the line to Chiellini who does likewise. From each side, wild eyed, they’re almost wrapping teammates up around them. Pillars … symbolically but quite literally too.

Italy entered the tournament with Chiellini and Bonucci the only members of the 26-man squad to have played more than 100 internationals. No one else had yet broken 50. But the biggest question marks surrounded the defensive duo. At 36 and 34 respectively, were they beyond the rigours of a major tournament? When things got tense and stretched tight, would old legs betray such wise minds?

Through the group stages and three knockout nights, they have answered “no” just as emphatically as they scream “Si!” pre-match. Tuesday’s pulsating semifinal against Spain was their 60th international together. It ended, as so often it does, in glory. Chiellini and Bonucci have lost just nine internationals alongside one another. At Euro 2020, in front of brilliant young goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, they have conceded just one goal from open play when on the pitch together.

“It’s been a number of years that it’s been said they’re the best centre-back pairing in world soccer,” Mancini said last week. “Their strength is that they want to prove that is still the case. That’s very important for a player, to prove that they are the best in their position with every game that passes.”

The games have passed for years now. As well as the 60 for Italy, Chiellini and Bonucci have played hundreds more together for Juventus, where they’ve won eight Series A titles as a duo. Their understanding is so innate, at times it seems they act as one.

“We know each other’s game inside out,” Bonucci has said. “It comes very naturally. You don’t have to think about the other things you normally would when playing with someone else. It allows us to both be leaders — that is critical.”

Chiellini put it another way: “For Bonucci, by now, I think I know him better than I know my wife …”

It can be tempting to look for disparate qualities that make the marriage so solid. But in truth they complement each other in subtle ways while being remarkably similar. Intelligence and intuition abound. In a modern game where defensive distribution is prized, Bonucci is by a distance the better technician. But Chiellini’s old school techniques aren’t nearly obsolete yet.

A master of dark arts, yes. But fine arts too. Chiellini has recounted being six or seven and feigning illness to get off school. His mother replied, “No studying means no football.” He never left it to chance. A lifelong learner, he has completed a degree in economics and commerce and masters in business from the University of Turin while studying on away trips with Juventus. Even as his body slows, he has been able to think his way through games.

The way he completely suffocated the threat of the game’s most in-form frontman, Romelu Lukaku, in the quarterfinals was a shining night alongside Bonucci, complete with a trademark chest thumping celebration of a goal-line clearance.

For all the words that preceded, simply put, they are warriors and winners. And no matter how the game evolves, there’ll always be a value for that. Chiellini will be 37 next month and, in spite of public petitions in Italy to convince him to play on, Sunday could be his last Azzurri outing.

England’s effervescent young attackers pose a hell of a threat. With captain Harry Kane likely to drop deep and stretch out Mancini’s defence, the final looms as the most intense re-asking of those questions about the legs, the durability of the warrior duo. Before leaving Italy for London Friday, Bonucci joked that Sunday will be “youngsters against old men.”

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Italy adores its central defenders. Always has. There’s a whole vocabulary built around the position. In this time of Last Dance narratives, it can be tempting to imagine the dream ending — Chiellini raising silverware alongside Bonucci Sunday night. But so many icons of the position could tell them it rarely ends that way: Paolo Maldini’s last outing was ignominy against South Korea in 2002; Franco Baresi’s a drab draw in Slovenia months after missing a penalty in the 1994 World Cup final; Fabio Cannavaro crashed out of the 2010 World Cup group stage after defeat to Slovakia.

At that same news conference Friday, Bonucci revealed that having spent so much of the summer together, he and Chiellini won’t be parting for long.

“We finish (with the national team) on July 12th and meet again on the 14th to go on vacation together,” he said. “This says it all about our relationship on and off the pitch.”

Before clocking off, there’s still business to attend to. And first, of course, the anthem.

Joe Callaghan is a Toronto-based sports and feature writer and a freelance contributor for the Star. Reach him via email: joecallaghan84@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter: @JoeCallaghan84