“After watching Pirlo put one past the Ghanaian keeper in 2006, I’ve never stopped.”
Emanuele Biasiol, movie star name, movie star moustache, owner of a 1963 Vespa, editor and producer at COPA90, and a gentleman who also happens to be an incredibly gifted photographer. All in all, not a bad resume.
Born in Trieste, Emanuele spent the first 19 years of his life in the capital city of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. The port city occupies a thin strip of land between the Adriatic coast and Slovenia’s border on the limestone-dominated Karst Plateau and comes with a long and fascinating history, a mixture of cultures, glorious architecture, endless coffee bars and a geographical location which makes it one of the most unique places in Europe.
“It is a beautiful, yet very still place. In this sense, an ideal sandbox to grow up in,” explains Emanuele. “Neither too provincial nor too urban, and sat slap bang in the middle of Europe. You can drive to three different countries in under one hour from there, with a choice between skiing on the Alpine slopes or diving in the Croatian sea.”
“It is also the oldest city in Italy by average age, and that can feel very suffocating – and ends up pushing people away if they grow up with any sort of ambition.” Whilst not completely suffocated, Emanuele did occasionally struggle with the smell of toasted coffee from the nearby illy factory that would often engulf the area.
It is now however the sights, sounds and scents of London that have heart, “I have just mortgaged myself into a future lifetime of Isle of Dogs residence. I love the Docklands: the brackish air and UberBoat waves out of my window remind me of growing up by the sea. Also, my house sits on coordinates 0.0° E as it’s right across the Greenwich Meridian. How cool is that? (It’s not).”
Having lived in the UK for the last ten years, Emanuele moved to the Big Smoke at the beginning of 2020. It was March of that year when he began his first day of work at COPA90, a tumultuous time when the pandemic was beginning to wrap its arms around us and strangle society.
It would be a start fraught with uncertainty, but it also marked the beginning of an epic adventure which has seen him embark across the world; capturing and filming icons of the beautiful game, standing pitchside at the Allianz Stadium, sitting with Fabrizio Ravanelli, visiting the footballing paradise that is Marseille, witnessing Italy’s Euro triumph and even welcoming Prince William onto the COPA90 podcast.
Emanuele admits that his love of football came late to him, but it is now well and truly part of his soul, and the beating heart of his everyday life.
Photography is also another hugely important passion of his, and something that he is incredibly skilled at. Varying between 35mm photography and Fuji’s film simulation, his work captures football culture, and travel in its purest form, each image stylistically cinematic, wrapped up with a beautiful vintage feel.
Travel influences a lot Emanuele’s photography and it also showcases the vast amount of locations he has visited.
“My family is almost entirely made up of railway employees going back 2 generations, so we’ve always been on the move.
“Up until the age of 25, I had a free train pass I could use anywhere in Europe and so I did – it set me up with a huge appetite for exploration and an unrealistic affordability expectation!
“I’m also a keen two-wheel fan, at low speeds. I own a 1963 Vespa in Italy which I adore like a family member, and have been (electrically) cycling around London for a few years now.
“I love everywhere with a beach and a Mediterranean climate, but my 6 months living in California are hard to match and I’d do that again in a heartbeat (not as a 20-year-old though! I’d like some wine please).”
In a life dominated by travel, creativity, editing, producing and photography, what does the ideal day look like for him away from the pressures of work and life? “I’d say a Cafe for a smashed avocado breakfast, a Mudchute farm stroll, Pie and Mash at Goddard’s in Greenwich, cycle down the Thames Path until the sun drops, return by boat/cable car, dine at Little Georgia in Islington, go disco dancing somewhere in Hackney or Dalston. Mind you, that’s quite the tiring day…”
In between cycling and disco dancing, there is occasionally time for film. Something which Emanuele of course has very good taste in, with Boogie Nights, IL Divo, Dogman and True Romance amongst his cinematic favourites. “I’ve got a student loan, which I’m still paying off for that taste. I’ve got a degree in Film and I spend most of my free time compulsively adding ratings to my Letterboxd account.”
With Euro 2024 looming large on the football horizon, the rest of the year promises much excitement. “I can’t say what COPA90 has planned for the Euros, but it’s safe to say we’re cooking up something good. It’s not ever going to be better than in 2021, but one can dream.”
“In terms of what is coming up in the rest of the year, I’d love to keep bringing more Italian football culture to COPA90’s audience – something which has been missing as of late. Piano piano…
On sitting down with Emanuele, it became incredibly evident throughout our conversation that his English is probably better than mine, and makes my attempts to try and learn Italian over the past few years look vaguely pathetic. Especially as I’ve only been able to master, ‘che bella giornata è.’
Burning jealousy aside, it was brilliant to get the chance to discuss everything from COPA90 to football culture, photography and why he feels so disgustingly lucky.
I IMMEDIATELY DEVELOPED AN ADDICTION
I’m actually a very late bloomer to football. I was a contrarian at heart growing up and refused to participate in the early 2000s Serie A hysteria (why?!), But even I couldn’t resist the pull of a country celebrating a World Cup win.
After watching Pirlo put one past the Ghanaian keeper in 2006, I’ve never stopped.
My first time at a stadium was an unmatchable experience. The two teams I’ve supported all my life, Triestina and Juventus, faced off in a sold-out Nereo Rocco during the 2006-2007 Serie B season. And what is probably going to be the only official encounter between the two teams in my lifetime.
The roar of the 38,000 souls in attendance that day was something that I immediately developed an addiction to – a few months later I had a season ticket.
I WAS AT WEMBLEY TO WATCH DONNARUMMA GIVE US THE EUROS.
The road to becoming Editor and Producer at COPA90 was in a way like a last-minute corner kick… I had moved to London a few months prior, and I had a feeling my career was moving further and further from any chances of putting my production skills to use – and then COPA90 came calling.
My first day in the office was a nightmare though: it was the 4th of March 2020, and by the end of my first lunch break both the Spanish and Italian leagues had been officially suspended. I genuinely thought football as we know it would end that week.
I was lucky enough to survive the horrible uncertainty that followed everywhere in the industry and found myself in the classic post-plague scenario of a lot of work being left to do for a few people. That allowed me the space to showcase my skills and grow them, progressing from PA to Coordinator and now, to a role as Producer.
In the 4 years this took, I’ve had to pinch myself constantly. I have worked with my favourite clubs and my favourite player, Alex Del Piero. I have delivered for some of the biggest names in the space, from Adidas and Nike to EA Sports and Ligue 1. I was at Wembley to watch Donnarumma give us the Euros. Hell, we even had Prince William on our podcast!
It feels disgustingly lucky to even just type it out right now. But I appreciate it so much.
I wanted to create a physical trail of my own life experience
I’ve been the ‘friend with a camera’ in my social circles as early as middle school when I would be shooting on a Nikon Coolpix and uploading pictures to Netlog.
I started taking portraits of friends and travel pictures from an early age, and subconsciously those always remained my main artistic triggers.
Having been a huge fan of realism and neorealism in Film (my degree!), I also naturally gravitate towards spontaneous, journalistic shots which visually portray the cultural and political themes of wherever I’m visiting.
When I was in my early 20s I developed an irrational fear of erasure: the precarious, ephemeral nature of digital photography I perceived when looking back at my early work pushed me to start shooting film as well. And not just for the aesthetic vibe: I’d actually have them all printed and scan them myself afterwards. I wanted to create a physical trail of my own life experience, rather than leaving only broken, dusty hard drives as my visual legacy.
So yeah, 35mm photography and more recently Fuji’s film simulation have often featured stylistically in my work.
We now romanticise these times as ‘more innocent’ but the truth is almost ironic.
The rise in football culture, is a lot like the ‘vinyl effect’. In a world where both creative and physical mass-produced commodities are more accessible than ever and delivered within hours, the value resides in uniqueness and authenticity more than in number, size or shock value.
Weirdly, a lot of these trends involve fetishizing an era of football history that is actually in many ways the origin of today’s problematic ‘modern game, the 90s and early 2000s. At least in Italy, this was when the commercialisation of the game boomed – pay TV killing Serie A attendance, millionaire owners inflating the market and American brands wiping out local sportswear brands.
We now romanticise these times as ‘more innocent’ but the truth is almost ironic.
And when you see clubs starting to regularly include vintage jerseys in their offering, or Adidas launching an ‘icons’ collection, it’s clear that this is having a feedback loop effect already.
The ‘modern game’ is still the fans, and we can steer it in the right direction via the commercial appropriation of these past aesthetic and cultural tropes.
All of our thanks to the gentleman that is Emanuele Biasiol
You can follow Emanuele on social media here.