Chiellini, Buongiorno an more: Serie A legends and Italy stars with degrees

Several current and former Serie A players are not only good at football, but they also obtained a degree at University. Do you know them all?

Although they may not need it to make a living, more and more players are going to university while playing football at the highest levels. One of the most famous in Italy is Giorgio Chiellini, a serial Scudetto winner with Juventus and a European champion with Italy. He ended his career at LAFC and has remained at the club as a director.

As a student, I used to take all the time I needed to write my essays, but Chiellini and his colleagues had to match the club’s and fans’ expectations and train at the highest levels while studying at University. Some may take it for granted, but they really shouldn’t.

Chiellini, in particular, graduated in 2017 with a final essay on Juventus’ Business model. Back then, the Bianconeri were the most solid example in Serie A for sustainability and competitiveness.

“To the end. This motto accompanied me on the pitch,” Chiellini wrote on Twitter after his accomplishment.

“It also supported me in these years with books. I’m happy to have received my degree!”

Only one month after Chiellini’s graduation, Juventus played their second Champions League Final in three years, losing to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid.

But who are the other Serie A and Italian players who graduated after Chiellini? Sky Sport Italia has recently provided an exhaustive list.

Cagliari midfielder Nicolas Viola, 34, a former Benevento star, obtained a psychology degree in Rome this past November, Only a few days earlier, he had scored a goal against Genoa in Serie A, contributing to Cagliari’s victory.

Former Inter defender Robin Gosens, now at Union Berlin is another famous psychology graduate, while Milan midfielder Tommaso Pobega has a Business Administration degree, the same as his former Torino teammate Alessandro Buongiorno. Pobega wrote an essay on the Rossoneri and Buongiorno on the Granata. Oddly, they could reunite at the Stadio Meazza next season as Milan are strongly interested in the Italian centre-back.

An ex-Torino, Juventus and Genoa midfielder, Tomas Rincon, has a degree in Sport Management, the same as Bologna veteran Lorenzo De Silvestri and ex-Roma and Inter star Edin Dzeko.

Roma’s Leonardo Spinazzola has studied international relations, and Napoli legend Dries Mertens has a degree in sports science.

What’s even more impressive is that all these players do not only play football, but they do it at the highest levels. Pobega and Buongiorno are promising Italian players; De Silvestri has spent many years in Serie A and could qualify for the Champions League with Bologna this term. Rincon won a Serie A title and a Coppa Italia with Juve, Dzeko has won trophies everywhere in his career, Spinazzola, like Chiellini, is a European champion with Italy, and Mertens is Napoli’s highest goal scorer.

Surely, they’ve set an example for many other footballers showing that their abilities go beyond football