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Literally...

A football fan has stolen media attention in Italy after being the only supporter to show up to watch his club play an away game in the top league.

Udinese fan Arrigo Brovedani was the club's sole supporter in Genoa for a Serie A match against local team Sampdoria.

The 30-something wine merchant found himself alone in the visitors' section.

But Sampdoria stewards gave him coffee and home fans invited him for a drink after the match.

Mr Brovedani told the BBC he had not expected to find many fellow supporters from Udinese, one of the smaller clubs in Serie A.

It was a cold Monday night and Udinese never attracts more than 50 or 60 away fans.

"But I went there thinking I'd find five or six other people," the Udinese fan said.

"I went into the stadium while they [Udinese] were warming up. I shouted and said 'hi' to the team.

"When I went in the local fans booed me, I felt a bit offended.

"But in the end they clapped and invited me for coffee and a meal, and the club managers gave me a shirt. They wished me a merry Christmas."

Genoa is about four hours' drive from Friuli, where Udinese are based.

But Mr Brovedani was in Genoa on business.

"I like the stadium there, it's very similar to English stadiums," he said. "I always take my flag and scarf around - they're always in the car with me."

Luckily for Mr Brovedani, Udinese won the match 2-0 and the team dedicated their victory to their only fan. He has been invited to attend its next home match on Saturday.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20700529


Amazing to think this can happen in a top flight game in one of the 'big four' leagues.

A large away following used to be pretty unique to the UK due to the distances involved. Even though travel is easier these days they don't have the habit in many countries.

Fair play to the guy though. And fair play to the home club for treating him well.

Agreed! I'd feel pretty intimidated being there!

What's the lowest away attendance youve seen at City..

EDIT - I mean - when we're at home. Not City's away attendance.

HA!

Great story and thread title.

As for your question, dunno - Wigan always really disappoint me, I know they don't get many at home (even when playing the Champions), but it's such a short distance, I generally think they should make more of an effort. Plus, it's an opportunity to just get out of Wigan.

I remember counting fulham away fans in a mid week game once....think it was about 50 odd.

Yep, I'd go with Fulham as well

Imagine all the fun he could've had with his songs.

We're not really here (no, really).
There's only one of us singing (without anyone ever joining in).
I am the North Stand.
I couldn't sell all my tickets.
They're here, they're there, they're every-fucking-where, empty seats, empty seats (pointing around the away section).

It has to be Villareal, they had about 15 fans tucked away up in the corner of the east stand. There were more stewards surrounding them than fans.

[youtube]-o9gf_soFBM[/youtube]

Chinners wrote:"I wannabe ... All by myself ... I wannabe ...."

Or if he'd thought ahead and really wanted to camp it up...

[youtube]KbqMD29qi58[/youtube]

Ha ha, good work A+

[youtube]4QwbFBOyE2Y[/youtube]

Lee_Kinda wrote:I remember counting fulham away fans in a mid week game once....think it was about 50 odd.

I was there for that game too and was so bored I tried counting them too, not going to split hairs but remember I totalled 49, maybe a couple had gone to the loo.......

[youtube]djU4Lq_5EaM[/youtube]

This could go on for a while

I don't know how many of you remember Unirea Urziceni, that small team that was in the Chumps League a thew years ago and almost got themselves in the last 8. They were the team of a city, well the name city is too much, they were a team from a rural area, meanwhile the team doesn't exist anymore, but anyhow, the had only one fan that went when the team played away from home. When Urziceni played home, they had 6000-7000, but away they had only one fan

He called himself "the lonely wolf". That is what the banner is saying.

PeterParker wrote:I don't know how many of you remember Unirea Urziceni, that small team that was in the Chumps League a thew years ago and almost got themselves in the last 8. They were the team of a city, well the name city is too much, they were a team from a rural area, meanwhile the team doesn't exist anymore, but anyhow, the had only one fan that went when the team played away from home. When Urziceni played home, they had 6000-7000, but away they had only one fan

He called himself "the lonely wolf". That is what the banner is saying.

haha, lolz. i want to meet that guy. i once went to a dinamo bucuresti - ut arad game, that had about 40 arad fans and about 2500 riot police. weird.

the best one i ever managed was exactly 9 millwall fans at a bradford game in the late 80s

doesn't surprise me - watching italian league on espn, some of the smaller serie a teams have pretty much a league 2 turnout at best
italian football is massively on the decline, its sad to see, but they have be architects of their own downfall

Still, sadly, Udinese managed to grab a comfortable win from my beloved Blucerchiati.

While it's very true the English level of support and passion is unique, the sad reality is that those kind of things are getting quite normal in Italy: addiction to match fixing and people struggling with poor wages are destroying the Italian passion for the Game.

Alioune DVToure wrote:Imagine all the fun he could've had with his songs.

We're not really here (no, really).
There's only one of us singing (without anyone ever joining in).
I am the North Stand.
I couldn't sell all my tickets.
They're here, they're there, they're every-fucking-where, empty seats, empty seats (pointing around the away section).

I only sing when we're winning

"There's only one Udinese (fan), oooonnnneeeee Udinese (fan)..."