The queue at the barber shop in Rotterdam was a long one. Men sat down flicking through magazines while they waited their turn in the chair. Even Graziano Pelle had to be patient, which was odd as all the customers were asking for his haircut. "There'd be four or five guys in front of me getting the same style," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport: the slick, Brilliantine-groomed Cary Grant comb-over look. "I like the '60s," Pelle explained to Il Messaggero. "There was more respect then."

This was at the height of Pelle's popularity in the Netherlands, where he played for Feyenoord from 2012-14. Fans couldn't get enough of him. A publisher approached him with a book deal. "Pelle speaks: 1000 questions and more," sold well and allowed fans to get to know him a little better. With all due respect to Grant, if anyone were to play Pelle in a film, he says his preference would be for the producers to cast George Clooney. Why? "Because he is elegant," said Pelle.

Alternatively, Pelle could play himself. He's movie-star handsome. "I like to joke with his mother that he gets it from me," Pelle's father Roberto laughed in La Repubblica. Another of the questions asked in his book was who do you think is better looking: Cristiano Ronaldo or yourself? "Me," Pelle replied. "Cristiano is good-looking, but I am a little bit taller." Dreamy enough to have been a model like his girlfriend Viktoria Varga, the runway certainly had its appeal for Pelle, but a career in fashion didn't have the same earning potential as football, without which he wouldn't be a star in the first place.

Pelle was scoring for fun for Feyenoord. He hit 50 goals in 57 games in the Eredivisie. For all the adulation it generated -- a simple trip to the supermarket used to end with Pelle being mobbed like he was a member of The Beatles -- it did not bring the attention he most coveted. Italy were due to play a friendly in Amsterdam in the spring of 2013. Capped at youth level, Pelle had never been called up to the senior squad. "If they don't call me up now, when I am one of the best known Italians in Holland, they will never call me up," he thought. The phone never rang.

His father blamed previous Italy coach Cesare Prandelli. "If you're the national team coach and a kid scores 60 goals, you have got to give him a call and go watch him. Then if he doesn't get you all enthusiastic, don't call him anymore, but at least give him a chance."

Playing in the Netherlands seemed to count against Pelle. It took a while to come to terms with. "Think of the strikers who exploded here: [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and [Luis] Suarez," he reminded La Gazzetta dello Sport. Pelle recommended that his critics go check out his goals. "Right foot, left foot, headers, back-heels, bicycle kicks, on the counterattack, against packed defences. I scored all kinds of goals. You either can do these things or you can't. It doesn't matter where you play."

Gradually, however, Pelle acknowledged it was a waste of time trying to persuade people whose minds were already made up. "... I realised I had to go to the Premier League to get picked for my country," he explained this week. "I was top scorer for Feyenoord in Holland, but their league is not rated as highly in Europe." Pelle bid the De Kuip farewell and followed his manager Ronald Koeman to Southampton. Four goals in his first seven games as a Saint were enough to impress Prandelli's replacement, Antonio Conte, to pick up the phone.

Upon returning to Italy's training base in Coverciano for the first time since he was in the Under-21s, Pelle was overcome with emotion. He saw members of staff and former teammates like Giorgio Chiellini and Riccardo Montolivo, whom he hadn't seen since their involvement in a playoff against Portugal to qualify for the Beijing Olympics when he scored a cucchiaio -- Francesco Totti's version of a Panenka. "I'm not one to blame other people," Pelle said. "Coaches, teammates, clubs. If I have only just got into the national team, it's my fault. Better late than never."

Pelle was 29. The papers considered him a "late bloomer" like Luca Toni. "At my age, he'd already won the World Cup," Pelle corrected them. Pelle scored on his debut against Malta and became the fourth oldest player to do so for Italy after Sergio Pellisier, Francesco Pernigo and Cristiano Lucarelli. His record under Conte is a goal every other game, and when the history of Conte's time in charge is written, the "discovery" of Pelle will go down as one of the big positives. Both hail from Lecce on Italy's heel. "Every now and then we talk in dialect," Pelle revelaled.

Made to wait so long to represent his country, Conte sees that Pelle appreciates it more. There is no sense of entitlement, only pride. It's a common thread running through the squad: Emanuele Giaccherini was written off as too small and had to consider going back to work in a factory. He was part of the Cesena team, along with Antonio Candreva, Marco Parolo and Eder, that got relegated the last time Italy were preparing to face Germany at the Euros in 2012. You get the feeling this whole experience means more to them and it's evident on the pitch. For instance, Pelle's father "gets so emotional and so proud that he can't even come to games." Apparently "when it gets too stressful for him, he will walk into the kitchen and come back when the game is less stressful," says Pelle.

Pelle called his father after the Belgium game when he scored, as he would against Spain, the clinching goal in stoppage time. Instead of praise, the elder Pelle jokingly told his son off for missing a header in the first half, giving him a few pointers on his technique. "All dads think they are [Marco] van Basten," Pelle told Viva Azzurro. Roberto Pelle is involved in the coffee industry today, but back in the day he used to play up front for Lecce. The highest level he ever played at was the third division. "They like to say football was a lot harder in those days," says Pelle evoking the father and son banter in which they engage.

It's not hard to imagine Roberto strutting around Monterio, the family home, like a peacock at the moment. His boy, whom he named after 1982 World Cup winner Francecso Graziani, has arguably been the best No. 9 at the Euros, outshining the top scorers of the Premier League, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Harry Kane has been a shadow of himself. Robert Lewandowski goes into the quarterfinals without an international goal in 10 hours and 43 minutes. Ibrahimovic retired without making an impression on the tournament. As for Thomas Müller, well, he has yet to open his account in the Euros. Olivier Giroud continues to divide opinion. The big guns have been a disappointment. But not Pelle.

In addition to his goal, his general play against Spain was exceptional, particularly his work off the ball to disrupt Spain midfielder Sergio Busquets from getting their passing game going. His volley against Belgium was all about timing, footwork and coordination. Pelle, you see, used to be a ballroom dancer. His elder sister, Fabiana, needed a partner when he was growing up and in order not disappoint his mother, a keen dancer herself, Pelle would get changed in the car after football training, put some heels on to make up for the difference in height, and go through her routine. They became Italy's Latin American champions. You never know, if Italy and Pelle keep this up he could soon add a European title to his collection.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by James Horncastle

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