The world’s worst national team
Danilo Rinaldi stands with his arms locked around the shoulders of his team-mates either side of him beneath the sweltering sun.
Backs straighten, heads look up to the stands, as the opening chords of “Inno Nazionale della Repubblica” ring out. A row of Sammarinese, lost for a moment, in the moment, eyes glassy, distant, focusing on a place very few of us ever reach, where the pride, meaning, belonging felt in representing your nation lives.
We can only imagine, but Danilo Rinaldi knows. It is not his first experience of this moment, shared with 600 spectators at the national stadium of San Marino.
He has experienced it 46 times in his international career spanning 14 years.
He has experienced it in front of 85,000 fans at Wembley, twice. He has experienced it lining
