He is a young right-back, with still unknown potential, but with sulphurous ancestry who has just signed his first professional contract with Lazio Rome, the second club in the Italian capital.
At 18, Romano Floriani Mussolini is the son of Alessandra Mussolini, the former MEP and… the great-grandson of Benito Mussolini.
Former Duce, in power between 1922 and 1945, founder of the Italian fascist movement and ally of Adolf Hitler during World War II ...
This surname still smells of sulfur on the other side of the Alps.
Obviously, the young Roman hope refuses the trial of heredity and only wants to talk about football.
This weekend, Romano Mussolini made his debut for the Lazio primavera in the lost game against the Juve primavera.
The great grandson of Duce, born in 2003, evolves to the position of right side.
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"Me, I only want to be judged for the way I play football, and not for my name," said Romano Floriani Mussolini to Radiosei radio.
On the Lazio side, we are also demolishing the ground.
" Her last name ?
I never spoke to his parents, and the only thing that matters is whether a player deserves to play.
Nothing else, ”retorted Mauro Bianchessi, manager of the Lazio youth team.
Odious behavior
But the problem goes beyond young Mussolini.
Many fear his name will wake up extremists.
Because Lazio Rome is a club which historically conceals in the ranks of its ultras, a party linked to the Italian far right nostalgic for fascism.
In 2005, the team captain, Paulo Di Canio, who shares the ideas of this extremist fringe, made a Nazi salute to their address after a goal.
Three years ago, the club was fined 50,000 euros for the odious behavior of certain ultras before a derby against AS Rome: they had spread on the lawn of the Olympic Stadium stickers bearing the effigy of 'Anne Franck, one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust, wearing the jersey of the Roman rival ...