A great passion for soccer and a big admiration for Giuseppe Rossi is what pushed Diana Santi a few months ago to found the Giuseppe Rossi Fan Club NY [2].

Huge supporter of Fiorentina [3], Diana met Giuseppe Rossi, better known as “Pepito” Rossi, during a private dinner organized by a friend of hers, as much of a Viola team fan as herself, who wanted to meet the soccer player. Rossi has been transferred  last year from the Villareal [4] to the Italian society.

“I had the opportunity to meet him here in New York and the lucky chance to interact not only with a public figure but with an ordinary guy. And it is wonderful when you become aware of the fact that some guys who are such important icons are also extremely simple guys full of values like Giuseppe,” affirms Diana recalling her first meeting with the young champion.

Born in New Jersey, in Teaneck, to Italian parents - his father is from Fraine (Chieti), his mother from Acquaviva (Isernia) - he grows up in Clifton and soon discovers that, even if baseball was the main sport of his area, his true passion was soccer.

At 12 years old he moves to Parma with his family and here his soccer career begins. Eyed by several talent scouts, he arrives at Fiorentina in 2013.

Son of Italian immigrants, Pepito, tells Diana, embodies the values of sympathetic sport between different countries and different cultures. And there could not be a better city that New York to start her Fan Club.

“The great thing about New York,” says Diana, “is that it’s a city that unites everything. Unites cultures, languages, traditions and food from all over the world. There is a lot of integration. Just as there is in soccer. And Giuseppe posseses this characteristic and people love him because he represents a bridge between different cultures. For instance, when he injured his knee for the second time he did not receive messages only from the Fiorentina fans, but from the whole world of soccer. Many fans from other teams wrote to him to give him all their support.”

Both in Italian and English, the Fan Club Giuseppe Rossi NY [2] is opened to the supporters of Pepito all around the world even if “you feel definitely more Italian when it comes to soccer,” jokes Diana.

“The Fan Club is opened to everyone: Italians, Americans, Italian Americans, Fiorentina fans, Italy fans and fans of good soccer. Therefore it’s opened to everyone who appreciates a phenomenon, because when Giuseppe plays he is a phenomenon but he is able to bring a lot of humanity outside the field as well. This makes him a model for both young and older people. A wonderful model for everyone to follow,” affirms Diana.

By subscribing (the cost is only $30) you will have access to the fan area where you can see special contents, videos, interviews and exclusive pictures of the champion. You will also have a right to the membership card, an autographed picture, a cap with the official logo of Giuseppe Rossi and, last but not least, all the accesses to the VIP areas during events, both in Italy and in the US, where Pepito Rossi will be as well.

On the agenda, but we’ll have to wait until next year, a 3 day trip to Italy, precisely Florence, where the luckiest fans will have the opportunity to attend Pepito’s soccer games, training sessions as well as  dinners with him in exclusive restaurants of the Tuscan capital.

“Giuseppe supports us a lot. He really liked the idea of the Fan Club and the possibility to have direct contact with his fans,” affirms Diana, also thanked personally by Pepito on his Facebook page for having created the fan club and given his supporters the chance to follow him in Italy and in the US.

The “Giostra dei Goal [5],” a tv program about soccer which airs on Rai Italia, wanted to give recognition to the just born Giuseppe Rossi Fan Club NY [2].

“It was a wonderful experience and opportunity to talk to all the Italians who live abroad about our Fan Club,” tells Diana, “and this has generated so much traffic of Facebook, Twitter and on the page of the Fan Club since the media attention that this guy has among the fans of good soccer is incredible.”

And it is exactly the good soccer that the Fan Club Giuseppe Rossi NY [2] wants to promote. The soccer that unites and not drives people apart, because, as Diana mentions referring to an episode which occurred during the final of the Italian Cup Fiorentina-Napoli in which a Napoli fan was seriously injured, “soccer is not violence. Soccer is brotherhood.”

And Giuseppe Rossi represents the values of good soccer. Of a sport intended to promote determination, passion and most of all union. Values that we hope will be promoted also during the World Cup in Brazil.

And we hope as well, to see the name of Pepito Rossi on the final list of the Italian players called for the World Cup by Cesare Prandelli which isto be released on June 3rd.

“If he goes, I am sure Italy will arrive at the final but most of all Giuseppe deserves it, because despite his injuries, he really worked hard to get better and be able to go to the World Cup in Brazil which has always been his dream,” affirms Diana.

And on the occasion of the debut of the Italian National team in Brazil, also the Fan Cub Guseppe Rossi NY [2] webpage will color itself blue to wish luck to Pepito and all his teammates.