Red balloon day
On October 6, the Fiorentina went to Rome to open the worldwide ‘Every One’ campaign for Save the Children in the hopes of saving 2.5 million children by 2015. Instead of the usual release of thousands of red balloons, individual balloons were attached to people’s wrists as a symbol of children in need.More injuries and a few recoveries
During the recent two-week break, the number of injured players in the Fiorentina seemed to increase. Stevan Jovetic, Nikola Gulan, Manuel Vargas, Gaetano D’Agostino, Cristiano Zanetti and Riccardo Montolivo were already injured before the pause in matches. Argentinian Mario Bolatti injured himself during a match with his national team. Alberto Gilardino missed Italy’s October 6 qualifying match against Northern Ireland, sidelined with a calf injury he sustained at the end of the Fiorentina-Palermo match. Gilardino has already recovered and Vargas has recovered from the injury that kept him out of the last match.Candidate for the Fifa Fair Play Award 2010
The UEFA has officially announced that the Fiorentina is the European candidate for the Fifa Fair Play Award 2010 for its efforts at fair play and good sportsmanship over the last few years. Examples cited were the ‘Il calcio è un divertimento’ message on their jerseys as well as the team’s support of Save the Children.Dismay around the Cittadella
The owners of the Fiorentina, Andrea and Diego Della Valle, have announced that their plans to build the Cittadella have been tabled. The president of the Tuscan Region recently voiced his opposition to the Cittadella project, the new stadium and training camp and commercial center that the Della Valle brothers first proposed two years ago. Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, instead, is trying to revive the idea. TIM Cup
On October 26, the Fiorentina will be playing against Empoli for the TIM Cup at Franchi Stadium.Happy Birthday to Comotto
Gianluca Comotto celebrated his 32nd birthday on October 16. The defender, who is originally from a town in the Piedmont region of Italy, has been with the Fiorentina since 2008 and has appeared in over 50 matches.
Another loss for the Fiorentina
On October 17, the Fiorentina traveled to Genoa to play its seventh match of the season against Sampdoria. Within the first few minutes of play in the first half, Marco Marchionni scored his first goal of the season. Sampdoria was unable to get the ball past Viola goalkeeper Sebastien Frey in the first half, but 15 minutes before the end of the match, everything changed: Sampdoria scored a goal from a free kick, and only one minute later, Antonio Cassano scored another goal for Sampdoria, thus ending the match 2-1. The Fiorentina finished the match at the bottom of the Serie A rankings, a position the team has not been in for years.
