Italy has always been a big sporting nation and a successful one at that, especially when it comes to football at both domestic and international levels. However, although football is where they often find themselves among the best, there are other sports that have seen Italian winners in the past decade.
This article will take a look back over the last ten years and highlight the biggest of those achievements made by Italians.
Winners of 2006 World Cup
Football is of course the most popular sport in Italy, just as it is across the rest of Europe. Italy has a very impressive history, however, that many of the other European nations simply cannot match. They have won the World Cup on four separate occasions in 1934, 1938, 1982 and more recently in 2006.
That victory in 2006 marked the first time the country had won the most prestigious international football tournament for almost 25 years. The event was held in Germany, and Italy started out by topping their group which contained Ghana, USA and the Czech Republic before then advancing through the knockout stages by beating Australia, Ukraine, Germany and then France in the final.
That final finished 1-1 between the two teams and had to be decided by a penalty shootout which Italy won 5-3. Gross scored the deciding penalty and Italy deservedly went bananas after claiming their fourth World Cup title.
Antonio Buonanno Wins EPT Grand Final Main Event 2014
Far more recently than the other big sporting moment of the past ten years for Italy is the recent PokerStars European Tour Grand Final Main Event win for Antonio Buonanno. He pocketed €1.24 million from his victory in the event in Monte Carlo, representing his best ever performance and result which immediately gained him recognition in Italy for his success.
He overcame a field of 650 other players before finally making it to the final table with eight other players.
The heads up session between Buonanno and British professional poker player Jack Salter actually broke records after it became the longest heads up match after it took an astonishing 310 hands before a winner was revealed.
Frankie Dettori – Pick One of Many
It is difficult to really pick out one great achievement that the Italian jockey Frankie Dettori has made, having been recognized as one of the best jockeys ever to live. He has won over 2,000 races throughout his career dating back from his first season in 1990.
He has made achievements such as winning seven races in a single day at Ascot and has won every single major race on the calendar. He has obviously become a huge celebrity both in his homeland of Italy and in the UK where he spends a lot of time. He still rides today and will no doubt carry on breaking records just like he has his entire life.
