Giorgio Chiellini has revealed that he put a ‘curse’ on Bukayo Saka moments before the England attacker had his decisive penalty saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
A tweet from UEFA shows Chiellini shouting “Kiricocho” just as Saka was about to take his spot-kick. His subsequent miss awarded Italy their first European Championship title since 1968.
The Euro 2020 final went into extra-time after Luke Shaw’s early striker was cancelled out by a scrappy goal in the second half by Leonardo Bonucci.
It led to a penalty shoot, where the Three Lions lost, following misses from Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Saka.
And now it’s been revealed Chiellini put a “curse” on Saka before his penalty.
The word “Kiricocho!” is a phrase used by footballers for years. It’s supposed to bring bad luck to their opponents.
The Juventus centre-back was asked after the game whether he had used the phrase during the shootout.
“Hello Christian, I confirm everything! Kiricocho!”, the Italy captain said on Tuesday via Tribal Football.
The curse of Kiricocho
Juan Carlos “Kiricocho”was massive supporter of the Argentine club Estudiantes de la Plata.
During the 1980s, he even attended training sessions, such was his passion.
During this time, however, Estudiantes head coach Carlos Bilardo noted that whenever Kiricocho was turned up during a game or a session, one of his players used to get injured.
This prompted coach Bilardo to ask the fervent supporter whether he would instead turn up to games of rival fans.
Kiricocho accepted the plea and started to attend rivals’ games to try and get their players injured.
Bilardo said: “Kiricocho was a kid from La Plata who was always with us, and since that year we were champions (in 1982), we adopted him as our mascot. He was a good kid but then I didn’t see him again. The last time I was coaching Estudiantes (in 2003-04) I asked after him and nobody knew anything”.
Featured image: Getty