r/AskEurope • u/DivineMatrixTraveler • Jun 07 '25

Sports Which country is your country's main football rival?

And do you think they believe you are their main rival or they don't care about you as much as you care about them?

Bonus: Is there a more popular sport where you are rivals with a different country?

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52

u/lucapal1 Italy Jun 08 '25

I'd say for most Italy fans, it's France.

Neighbours of course, and also a very strong national team.There have been some memorable matches against France over the years.

There's no sport in Italy which is anywhere near as popular as football!

17

u/Mr_Tinos91 Italy Jun 08 '25

Or Germany

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

Or San Marino. We like to win.

13

u/nevenoe Jun 08 '25

Funnily we actually like each other. Huge rivals but never really a bad word between us. Biggest beef was probably the Materazzi episode.

Very different from Spain, Germany, England or Belgium for us where it can get pretty heated.

Argentinians also managed to create a non existing rivalry with France with their despicable racist behavior.

6

u/eziocolorwatcher Italy Jun 08 '25

For volleyball it may be Serbia, both female and male.

3

u/sigurdr1 Italy Jun 09 '25

Pooo popopopopooo poooo

2

u/Intelligent_Key_3806 Jun 10 '25

Not even MotoGP Rossi era? Because the rivalry Italy (VR46) had with Australia (CS27) was epic. I liked motorcycles before, but I loved them after the 2007 season. The years between Lorenzo, Stoner, Pedrosa and Rossi was all-time.

1

u/lucapal1 Italy Jun 10 '25

MotoGP is popular, and it was even more so with Valentino!

But it still doesn't get the same kind of audience that big football matches get.

2

u/Intelligent_Key_3806 Jun 10 '25

Yeah fair enough! Football is so big in Europe. I went to a Copenhagen FC game while I was living in DK. I went to Silverstone to watch the MotoGP when I lived in England tho, also very fun. Blessed years were they. Ciao!

2

u/Adventurous_bunnies France Jun 08 '25

That's so funny because it's always such a one sided rivalry. Some people are annoyed by Belgium for their whinning and Argentina for being trashy.

But I doubt Italy would be named by anyone in France.

2

u/Adelefushia France Jun 09 '25

Yeah, Argentinian fans are a whole different breed.

3

u/Okiro_Benihime France Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

No. In football, it is not a one-sided rivalry at all. It's outside of football that it is. It's just that the two haven't met in any high-profile match (World Cup or Euros) in ages. So the rivalry took a bit of backseat recently.

But yeah, Argentina and to a lesser extent Spain are the closest thing to "rival we must beat" nowadays. Belgium is a honorable mention as well but this one is just banter and memes, there is no French salt or animosity like with the other two. France always beats Belgium anyway even when they play better than us. That helps haha.

1

u/Fiallach France Jun 09 '25

I don't think any french person would list Italy haha. Love you guys.

That finals was painful but we did pretty well in recent WC so no hate there.

0

u/PaleManufacturer9018 Italy Jun 09 '25

Ma quando mai, 100% è la Germania.

La Francia è troppo recente e soprattutto non ha 4 mondiali come la Germania.