City pick up new Italian supporter during Lockdown!

Below is the story of Nicola Possenti - our newest Italian supporter. Nicola discovered The Rebel Army through playing as the club in FIFA 20 career mode, picked up a Double Winners 2017 Commemorative Medallion, and then got in touch with us to share his story!

I became a Cork fan during my quarantine period at home, here in Italy, playing FIFA 20 in career mode with the team which, to be honest, I never heard about.

When I got selected I decided to study the history of the club and I gradually fell in love with it. In my first year as team manager I managed to win the Irish Cup but I still was not ready for the championship which I won the next year in a thrilling away match against Sligo Rovers on the last game of the season. We were 2-0 down with 30 minutes remaining but we managed to catch up and perform the come back with only 4 minutes left.

Dilly ding dilly dong, we were in Champions League. This is when I decided to purchase the double winners medallion even if I didn’t manage to win the Double on the same year. That was my goal for my third season as team manager: I wanted to win the Cup and the Championship on the same year to earn that medallion.

The first thing was the Cup which I won against St Patrick's Athletic. In Champions League, in a group with Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Spartak Moscow, we managed to end 2nd behind Man City and made it to the round of 16 with just one loss. We faced and won against Juventus and Real Madrid and then we had to play against Inter for the semifinal. During this period we made our way to the top of the League and with only 4 games left we were 3 points ahead on the Bohemians.

I had to play the second match against Inter, which had won for 2-1 in Turners Cross, to get to the Champions League final. I had to play those games since the Double was not yet won. Sadly I have to tell you that we didn’t win against Inter: the match ended in a crazy 3-3 draw with a dubious penalty against us in the last minute of the match. Still, the 15,000 Rebels who came to Milan were proud of us. After that loss we managed to win the championship and finally earn the Double Medallion anyway.

So this is the story of how I fell in love with Cork City.

We look forward to seeing Nicola at the Cross, when football resumes and life gets back to normal!