Having hosted Channel 5’s Football Italiano show alongside Radio 1 DJ Mark Chapman, Laura Esposto became the face of Italian football on UK screens. Since then she has worked for two football shows, including Milan Channel, and recently followed in the footsteps of Jose Mourinho, Fabio Capello and many other stars by appearing as the special guest on popular show Chiambretti Night. Tim Doel caught up with her to talk about some of the things they had in common - Italian football, the city of Milan… and Football Italiano.
The interview begins in the late afternoon, and Laura is at home having just come back from filming one of her shows. In an hour or so she will head to another studio. She’s busy, but is she enjoying being back in Italy? “Yes I’m enjoying life at the moment. Since Football Italiano I have been working for Tutti i goal minuto per minuto for 3 TV, and also Milan Channel, where I host a really interesting live show, two days a week. I’m pretty busy most of the time but I enjoy it.” Her English is excellent, a more relaxed, fluid version than the one that started the show in September 2007.
Laura was first working for Milan Channel when she got the opportunity to present Football Italiano in the UK. The only programme with live football on British terrestrial television, and following in the footsteps of the predecessor Football Italia. “I enjoyed it a lot, it was a really big thing for me, a great challenge as well,” she says. “The whole experience was very positive and I learnt a lot. If you can imagine suddenly working in a country, and a language that is not your own - it can be a bit limiting but it was an excellent experience. I also met some interesting football people, the likes of Roy Hodgson, John Barnes, Tony Dorigo, and many others.” And what of the Great British people? “Really nice people, the public were very friendly, and the Channel 5 staff who I got to know were very kind. I was staying right in the centre of London too, in a hotel for three days of the week, free to explore the city in my time off. I love London and especially enjoyed my time there through the duration of the show.” She clearly has affection for London, and great enthusiasm for her time there as a whole, but how could she deal with the mainly Italian minority that live in the UK that criticised her? “I felt it was more from a small amount of Italian people in the UK, not all of course, but as opposed to coming from British people. The Italians tended to be more critical, and sometimes quite offensive, which was a shame. I would have preferred it if they had been proud of me being one of very few Italians on British TV.” She is realistic and knows that in this job it is unavoidable - there will always be critics and the show itself received it’s fair share as well.
At the end of the first season, Channel 5 announced that it would not be showing Italian football the following season. What did she make of their decision to drop the show? “I knew Italian football was not that big in the UK, so I wasn’t that surprised when Channel 5 decided to pull their coverage. It hasn’t evolved as quickly as the Premier League. Our stadiums are not as developed, the quality of play is a little behind, and the style of football that we have in Serie A is not as exciting to a UK audience.” Probably true, I interrupted, but why would that be? “You will have to answer that one…” we laugh as I try to find the key to converting the UK public to Italian football, something that has been missing for over a decade. “The game is different to how it was when it was so successful in the early 1990s in the UK - Football Italia worked so well because you had great English personalities like Paul Gascoigne, and later, David Platt. We had nothing like that while I was in the UK - if a Lampard or Gerrard made the move over it could change everything.” It’s what I have been hoping for a while, and I’m sure many other British Calcio fans have, to see further representatives from Britain venture outside of our Island on to the peninsula.
Indeed, since David Beckham and Jose Mourinho made the move, there has been renewed interest from the UK, but TV companies will be holding out to see what the summer has in store. So let’s say Channel 5, for example, give her the call, would she be up for returning? “Yes, I had a great time in London. I am someone who prefers to be international, I have worked in the UK and in America, and I enjoy travelling and seeing different cultures.” And you wouldn’t miss Italy? “I love Italy, but I also miss London.” The capital seems to be the biggest pull for Laura, as it is for most foreign footballers, and many British people too, but moving away from the England capital, what is her favourite city in Italy I ask. “Well, I was born in Bologna, which is very beautiful and I still go back quite often. However I have lived in Milan now for around seven years and I have many friends here, my work too. I enjoy the lifestyle in this city as it is also more cosmopolitan, more international than any other city in Italy. In some ways it’s the perfect city.” Sentiments I am inclined to agree with, having spent a year here now.
In that year I have written about some of the stark contrasts between the media in Italy and that of Britain. Is it so noticeable the other way around? “Well, there are certainly many differences. Italian media maybe tend to be much more critical. They talk at much more length than those in the UK, and often try and find problems that need to be discussed as well. But to be honest I have to include myself in this category, it’s my job.” But is there any sympathy for the Coaches and players that get put under the spotlight? “What Mourinho had said earlier in the season is true. His first words after the game should be for his team, and then for the media. Often after the game the media will be looking for him to say something that they can pick up on, whereas in the Premier League the media are focussed more on the actual game.” This issue of Mourinho in Italy - he has caused a sensation by being so… different to any other coach in the league. But from the inside, from the Italian media point of view, does she think it is a positive to have Mou in Serie A? “Certainly a good thing,” she says instantly. “He has a big personality, and that is something I like a lot when compared to other Serie A Coaches. I like listening to him, although I agree that sometimes he would be better off not saying anything at all, but I think it has been a very good thing for the Italian football culture, to have a foreign Coach come over, with such a different approach to the media and the game.” Many Coaches may have disagreed with this opinion but in terms of attracting an international audience, it has been a necessary evil.
Finally, with Milan seemingly out of the running for the Scudetto, I wanted to get an opinion first hand, from within the Rossoneri camp - what went wrong this time? “This season there have been many, many injuries,” she says. I recognise it as the standard Carlo Ancelotti reply: “Borriello, Kaka, Nesta, Pirlo, Gattuso and Abbiati, plus others. If they had been fit all season we could have seen Milan alongside Inter at least. Next season we will see, and maybe I will be over in the UK to see it!” she laughs as though it may be unlikely, but if Serie A comes back to UK screens next year, Laura Esposto will be one of the first names on the presenting list.