Sal Bono – Curva Mundial’s King of New York
Salvatore ‘Sal’ Bono is a journalist and podcaster who created and hosts Curva Mundial podcast. Italian American Sal talks of his passion for football and how difficult it was keeping up with Serie A whilst growing up in New York. We talked football(soccer!), music and the upcoming World Cup during our chat in which we realised we had more than a few things in common!
Having listened to Sal’s podcast I know he is a passionate follower of Italian football but I was keen to know how that passion developed in the USA.
Childhood hero
“As an Italian American born in the 80s, I entered the world with a few things immediately. A name, a gold chain, which is about as stereotypical as it gets, and an Italian soccer scarf. Six years later it was the 1990 World Cup and my whole life just changed watching that tournament. I had family that was in Italy at the time and I thought when my uncles and cousins were going to matches, I would be able to see them on TV. We didn’t have 4K in 1990, so it was very grainy and I did not see them, but what I did see was my childhood sporting hero. He would predate Michael Jordan and Mike Tyson for me as the man that essentially got me into watching sports. That was Salvatore Schillaci.
We shared the same name. I came from a predominantly Irish neighbourhood in the South Shore of Long Island, and I was like an alien there with my name. So, I would get picked on, made fun of for my first name or for my surname. Then at 6 years old, there was this hero and no one cared about soccer in America, but for me, it meant the whole world. He was also from the same town as my father in Palermo, so my whole universe was this guy.
That World Cup was my first footballing memory. It was also the first time I got to see other cultures on display aside from my own or American. Seeing Roger Mila dancing and hearing this name Cameroon, that sounded like the coolest name on earth. It was like my introduction into geography and culture and history. That World Cup just exploded everything for me and I’m still that same 6-year-old.”
Passion for music
Sal’s passion for the beautiful game continued through his childhood but when it came to moving into the media world, it was a due to one of his other great passions, music.
“I am super passionate about all the things that I cannot do. So, I’m a terrible musician and I am a terrible footballer. Being an Italian, the arts are such a huge importance to all of us whether we as a culture or in the diaspora want to admit to it. I watched how my grandmothers made sauce and food, and how my mother cooked, and how my father made pizza in the pizzeria they had. There was an art to how they cooked and the passion that they had for it. I tried to do that with sport, and I tried to do that with music, and I just was not good at it.
Growing up in a loud household with a giant family that were super passionate, getting a word in was not a thing that you did if you were under the age of 21. You had to earn it, you could not just have an opinion. So, there was a lot of feelings that I couldn’t articulate, but music could.”
Small town
“I also grew up in a small town that, like anybody that grew up in a small town, you either love it or you hate it, and I had this fire in my belly that I just needed to get the hell out of there. Music helped me articulate my thoughts and opinions. I tried being a radio DJ and concert photographer, but I really enjoy this writing thing. So, I just pounded the pavement and made my own way, starting a website for my music writing for about over a decade.
I did all that while holding down a full-time job, this was a passion project. This is where my heart is, but my head is always thinking of paying the bills and adult things. I don’t want to be an adult, no one wants to be an adult. So, I had to figure out a way to live in both worlds, and I did. I had so much fun, Mark. Probably a little too much fun, but I was responsible and I’m still here.”
Football podcast
The move into football podcasting came in an unconventional manner as Sal felt the impact of life during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m a true crime journalist by day and that’s my trade, so you need an outlet to not think of all the terrible things in the world. I always spoke about football, and when I was working in an office someone who started off as a colleague, became one of my best friends, and we talked about soccer every day. He is an Inter fan, and I’m a Milan fan. When I said goodnight to my music website, I got married and decided I needed to be a husband. I talk about my wife a lot because she is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
We got married 6 months before the pandemic hit and being a true crime reporter at that time meant pivoting to write about the hellish vortex that was coronavirus. Living just outside the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City, I was not in a good mental state. It was not fun, so I started therapy. I missed talking about football, and it wasn’t the same on text message or Instagram Messenger or whatever. I missed human interaction. My therapist was the one that said, why don’t you do a podcast? I listened to a lot of podcasts during the pandemic and I saw what everybody was doing in the football space and I thought I would need to do something different.”
Bourdain influence
“I was watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain because I couldn’t travel. Something I realised about his show was that the show was never about travel or food. It was about the person that was sitting across from him, sitting down and having a conversation. My thought was that we can do that over football and it can meander into different things. So, I started enlisting some of my musician contacts from when I did my music writing. Peter Hook from Joy Division and New Order has been a mate, and he was the first to jump on and say yes. There was also an amazing band from South Africa that I interviewed a lot called Blackjacks who jumped on. I remembered how much I love talking to musicians about music and then finding a way to bridge all of that to football.”
A brilliant listen
Sal’s podcast is a brilliant listen, landing right in the space where football and music connect. I could not let Sal go without talking about the upcoming World Cup. Given his love for the 1990 version of the tournament, is he looking forward to it returning to American shore for the first time since 1994?
“My memories of ‘94 are great. I remember saying to mom and dad, can we go? And them looking at me being like, are you nuts? No, we can’t afford this. But I was given carte blanche to watch TV all summer long because the games were all broadcast live. It was soccer all day long, a dream come true. I remember vividly the heroics of Roberto Baggio, the greatest Italian soccer player ever.
That final was the first time I’ve ever experienced true emotion. I cried after he missed the penalty but, I also learned forgiveness. We don’t get to the final without him. We don’t get to experience those emotions without him. 1994 was amazing as it felt like the US truly cared because the marketing was on point. You couldn’t pick up a candy bar without the USA 94 logo on it, it was everywhere. It went from being a country that did not care about football to suddenly being like, oh, people give a shit, this is incredible. Eventually, it ended up giving birth to MLS, which took a while to catch on, but it lit the fuse.”
It breaks my heart
“So now here we are, flash forward 32 years later and I could not be more uninterested. I don’t like the fact that it is three countries hosting simultaneously. I feel I feel like a World Cup should be in one country. The US is so big, Mexico is so big, and Canada is so big that it is not fair that 90% of the games are played in the US. You could easily pick one of those three countries. Mexico has some of the most delicious stadiums in the world and the atmosphere is beautiful. Canada has never hosted before so why not just have it in Canada? But no, we as the US had to interfere.
Also, given the political climate, and the things that have gone on here. All the people that were angry at what happened in Qatar and Russia, their voices need to be just as loud here. I don’t like what is going on here, it breaks my heart. If you’re not going to allow people from countries that have qualified the right way, to enter this nation, to watch their team play and wave their flag, you don’t deserve to host the World Cup.
So, there is the political part of it and the other part is cost. Tickets for the World Cup final are going for $50,000. That is an abomination for a game that was invented by the people. FIFA now is the most corrupt organisation on the face of the earth. Sepp Blatter looks better by the day compared to Gianni Infantino who is just as much of a warmonger than a lot of world leaders.”
Tartan Army
“I say all this as Italy is yet to qualify. So, there is not a lot of joy for me, right? It is the holy trinity of politics, money, and my Azzurri have not qualified yet. I do have a soft spot in my heart for South Africa. I had studied and had my honeymoon there and I have a lot of South African friends, and I loved it as a country. I’m cheering for them and of course, Scotland. I’ll have the tartan army coming here to help quell my rage.”