Non-League and Academy football writer

Giovanni Schettino is someone who has real experience of playing football in Italy, and since moving to London, he founded the Italia Estero team, which competes in the prestigious annual Inner City (London) World Cup 2026. Ahead of their third consecutive year in the tournament, I caught up with Giovanni, to find out more about Italia Estero, whose tournament (it goes on over two days) starts tomorrow morning at Wanstead Flats.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football?

Giovanni: I was born in the province of Naples, and I entered into a football school, as a youngster, called Club Napoli. That is the same football school of Gianluigi and Antonio Donnarumma. After that I went into professional football later on, where I was the third goalkeeper in the third league of Italian football, for a team called Scafatese Calcio, in Serie C. I would later make some appearances in the third league of Italian football, and I also made many appearances in Serie D, and the fifth and sixth leagues in Italy, before moving to London.

After moving to London it was difficult for me to play football straight away, because of my work. I would eventually play both non-League and Sunday football, as well as doing some private coaching sessions for goalkeepers.

Could you talk me through a bit of the history of Italy in the Inner City World Cup (London)?

Giovanni: After becoming the goalkeeping coach of a semi-professional team, the actual coach of the team, was also the manager of the Brazil team at the Inner City World Cup. He would connect me with the organiser of the Inner City World Cup, and then three years ago that was when I entered this Italia Estero team into the Inner City World Cup, after having recruited players from all over London.

What are some of your hopes and aims for the Italy team at the tournament, this year?

Giovanni: We want to get to the knockout stages again, like we did during the previous year, when we lost (1-0) to Colombia, in a close game. So this year we want to get to the round of four, and do better than we did last year. Last year we lost 4-0 to then holders, Iraq, in our first group game. But, we managed to get out of our group. This year we are in a group which includes Turkey, Sao Tome & Principe, and last seasons’ winners, Honduras, who we at least have in the final group game.

Could you talk me through the footballing background of the Italia Estero team?

Giovanni: A lot of the Italia Estero players play for a Sunday league team called Partenope. We also have a player called Alex Nanni, who plays for his university team, but when he was younger he was with Italian team Sassuolo. And he is a very, very talented player. We also have another player, called Francesco Morandi, who was with AC Milan, as a youngster. We also have some players who have played at a good level of football in both non-League and Sunday League football.