AS Roma: Italian team reveal why they supported Super Eagles at the World Cup
AS Roma have finally cleared the air on why they backed the Super Eagles for glory at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Italian Serie A outfit AS Roma have finally revealed why they supported the Super Eagles of Nigeria for glory at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Italian side showed support for the Super Eagles when the provisional squad list for the tournament was announced which stirred confusion as to why they will back an African team instead of the several European teams that would be competing.
Despite to AS Roma’s home country Italy not participating at the world football fiesta, the Serie A team decided to still partake in the fun of the competition.
In a recent report by Front Office Sports, AS Roma revealed that the collaboration between their media team and the Super Eagles was one based on passion rather than financial gains.
In the report, the idea originated when AS Roma knocked out favourites a Lionel Messi led Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League.
The Italian side were fascinated by Nigerian radio presenter Mark Otabor who appeared in a viral video online reacting to the encounter which brought about the initial collaboration.
Paul Rogers, Roma’s head of digital and social media said, “Even Jim Pallotta, the club’s owner, was blown away by the passion from Mark in the video and [he] actually emailed him personally to thank him and wish him luck with his work.
“The humor we used seemed to really work with the Nigerian fans, and just as we adopted the Super Eagles, fans in Nigeria started to adopt Roma as their Italian team.”
The Super Eagles jersey to the World Cup caused massive reactions on social media and was rated by most sites as the best of all the teams in at the tournament.
AS Roma revealed that the club is also built on principles of Culture, music, and fashion similar to the Super Eagles and decided to remix the kit for their training attire.
“As a small way of thanking all the Nigerian fans who had shown us so much love, we initially offered to take a look at Nigeria’s official accounts on Twitter and Instagram and see if we could make any recommendations that could help their social media team ahead of the World Cup kicking off,” Rogers continued.
The Italian side continued to back the Super Eagles despite their failings in the friendly matches building up to the tournament and Rogers stated that the reason for the continuous support was to get Nigeria presence on social media for their outstanding jerseys.
He said, “[Soccer] on social media is a very visual experience but it can be hard to create great graphics that are consistent on the fly.
“Nigeria’s graphics were OK but they felt a little bit flat when you compared them to the energy of the team and the amazing kit that had taken the world by storm."
“We didn’t do it for publicity, we just did it because we became very passionate about the Super Eagles.”
Rogers stated that the Super Eagles and AS Roma have the same fan base of passionate and funny supporters.
Despite the Super Eagles crashing out of the group stage at the World Cup, AS Roma has continued to back the team for glory at the 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
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