Il presidente del Borgorosso Football Club (1970)

Hilarious comedy about the world of football fans. Alberto Sordi is known in Italy, not only for his many comical and dramatic film roles, but also for playing parts that reflected the new realities of Italian society. In 1970 the football industry was nothing new, but a comedy film about it definitely was. Alberto Sordi plays Benito Fornaciari, a pale, devoutly Catholic, Upper Middleclass Italian who inherits a minor-league football club from a long-lost uncle. He decides to visit the club to sell it, but the local population has other ideas: through an almost-armed uprising they "force" him not to sell the club but lead it to other glories on the football field. Gradually his initial reservations about football erode away to be replaced by an almost fanatical devotion to "his" football club, to the point that he abandons his family, friends, and hometown. He also becomes involved with other pleasures of life, like loving the beautiful female cook ,eating his heart out from the local culinary pleasures, and--best of all--hanging out with the football players during their training retreats.