Italy is the European soccer champion and Marco Scocci has two reasons to be happy.
The Oberammergau resident was born in Italy and won the European Championship betting game of the Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt.
This resulted in some strange and funny stories.
Italian from Oberammergau wins the European Championship betting game E-Bike worth 4000 euros
Father and daughter start a single car parade after the final
In the final, the family man almost falls asleep
Italian radio reports on prediction game victory
Oberammergau -
When July 12, 2021 is just a few minutes old, Moema and Marco Scocci leave their home, get into the car and set off. Your goal: you don't have one. Italy had just won the European Football Championship. They just wanted to celebrate because Marco Scocci is Italian. But father and daughter waited too long to watch the trophy handover and the celebrations on television with the family. When they drove on the streets of Oberammergau, they had this to themselves. A single car parade. "We were too late. After ten minutes we drove back home, ”says Marco Scocci with a laugh. At this point, the owner of the ice cream parlor Scocci even had two reasons to be happy, he just didn't know it yet. He only found out about the second reason on July 13th,when he opened the Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt that morning and read the article about himself there. Because Scocci is the winner of the European Championship prediction game.
Mixture of luck and intuition
The 54-year-old managed to do this by not giving too much thought, simply tapping on it. "I think you need 90 percent luck and ten percent football intuition." He scored only seven points. But then he made his way straight to the top, followed by 15 and 16 points on match days two and three, with which he snatched the championship lead. And he no longer gave it up. It certainly also helped that Scocci always bet on victory at his home country's games. Not that he saw the southern Europeans as European champions in advance. "But if I had bet against it, I should have hoped that Italy would lose." Of course, that was not possible. Scocci's heart beats for football,but actually not so much for the Italian national team, but for Fiorentina, the club in his hometown. "That is my football passion."
In the heart of Oberammergau and Florentine at the same time
In 1986 he left Florence at the age of 19 and wanted to learn another language after graduating from high school.
So it made perfect sense that the uncle ran an ice cream parlor in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Eiscafe Firenze, now Magia Fredda.
In 1994 Scocci returned to Italy and actually wanted to stay there too, but he was drawn back to Germany, more precisely to Oberammergau.
Until 2010 he ran the ice cream parlor Scocci together with his brother, since then he has been running the business alone and is actively supported by his family.
“Now I have two homes, Tuscany and Upper Bavaria.
I feel like an Oberammergau and Florentine. ”And now Tippkönig.
The big worries about the ticket
In addition to his family, the guests at the ice cream parlor also cheered him on and kept asking whether he was still in the lead. He always knew how many points he had, but only found out about the competition from the newspaper. In the beginning he sent his betting slip in the mail, but there were often only 48 hours between match days. After he was in the lead, it got too hot for him. “I always wondered whether the letter would have arrived correctly.” So he switched to digital, photographed his note and emailed it to the daily newspaper. Was better for the stress level Scoccis. The EM prediction game has always accompanied him over the past few weeks and also made for some difficult decisions. “In the semifinals I would have allowed Denmark. But I had to guess England. "
“I almost fell asleep at halftime.
I thought Italy didn't stand a chance. "
Marco Scocci
When the final came up, Scocci closed his ice cream parlor a little earlier so as not to miss the kick-off. But there was still one problem to be resolved: Who goes with the dog? Scocci himself waved it off: “Not me, I always do it.” His son took over the walk and therefore did not see the 1-0 of the English. At this point the father feared the worst and hope was almost gone. “I almost fell asleep at halftime. I thought Italy didn't stand a chance. ”His wife Nicola prevented the transition to slumber country, and after the 1-1 draw, Scocci was wide awake again. The penalty shootout then turned out to be a nerve crime. Daughter Moema took a cell phone video of how the family experienced the final minutes. These recordings are not presentable, "but quite funny". In any case, the joy was great.
Relief from his wife Nicola
Just like two days later, when it was published that Marco Scocci had won the € 4,000 e-bike from Radsport Burda.
Nicola Scocci was also relieved.
"She said: If it shouldn't be the e-bike, then the picnic basket, not the ice hockey card," says Scocci with a smile.
Second place was awarded with a permanent seat ticket for the SC Riessersee, third place with a picnic basket from the Hornung dealership worth 300 euros.
Game commented from the toilet
The fact that it has become the e-bike has already made the rounds in town. “A lot of people have congratulated me when I went shopping,” says Scocci. This news even reached Italy. The sympathizer of the 60s Lions ran a Facebook page with friends from 2014 to 2018 that satirically dealt with Fiorentina. One day, Radio Tuscany became aware of this Facebook page and asked Scocci to comment on the Florentine games live on the radio. “I was practically the correspondent from Upper Bavaria.” At the same time, it was also important to run the ice cream parlor. So when Scocci was added to the game and commented for a few minutes in his humorous way, he always disappeared in the ice cream parlor to the toilet or into the back room. His wife and daughter then took over the business.
Radio Tuscany reports on Scocci's victory in the prediction game
He still maintains contact with his friends in Italy, with whom he ran the Facebook page, and with the specials at Radio Tuscany.
He now also told them that he had won the e-bike.
The Spezl insisted on reporting on the radio that Marco Scocci from Oberammergau, born and raised in Florence, is the European Championship betting game king of the Garmisch-Partenkirchner Tagblatt.