Mussolini’s great-grandson signs for Lazio
22-year-old Romano Floriani Mussolini has re-signed for Rome-based football club SS Lazio.
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Romano Floriani Mussolini, son of politician Alessandro Mussolini and great-grandson of Benito Mussolini, has previously played for SS Lazio and other teams in their youth squads.
But this is not the first time the young player has attracted controversy with his surname - and the signing has raised concerns for Italy’s football scene.
Parts of Lazio's fan base are well-known to have links to far-right groups.
Despite efforts to distance himself from his great-grandfather, and an assertion he is not interested in politics, the young Mussolini has attracted attention from the far-right corners of Italy’s football scene.
At his last showing in the second-tier Serie B Juve Stabia club in 2024, the young Mussolini scored his first professional goal, to which fans reacted by throwing fascist salutes and shouting “Mussolini”.
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Juve Stabia denied its fans were performing fascist salutes.
"We do not accept exploitation for a golden boy like Romano Floriani Mussolini,” the team said at the time.
“The same thing goes for our fans, who have cheered as they have always done in the past with any other athlete.”
Mr Mussolini’s signing is not the first time SS Lazio has been linked to far-right politics, or Benito Mussolini himself.
The club’s ultras fans, known as the “Irriducibili”, have gained a reputation for their links to fascism - with one group even unfurling a banner that read “Honour to Benito Mussolini” at a 2019 match in Milan.
The group also have close links with the far-right fan groups for other clubs, including Inter and Verona.
The far-right fans of Verona have a long history of bringing fascist ideology to the football field.
Responsible for aiming monkey chants at players Mario Balotelli and Franck Kessie, these fans have even hung swastikas at matches, and parked their cars in the shape of a swastika at one match in 2014.
The former President of Verona’s Serie A team also came under fire in 2001, after he admitted he could not sign a black player to his team for worry of how supporters would react.