{"id":250716,"date":"2025-10-30T19:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/250716\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T19:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:29:08","slug":"its-about-playing-football-how-fabio-borini-landed-at-league-two-salford-salford-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/250716\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s about playing football\u2019: how Fabio Borini landed at League Two Salford | Salford City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fabio Borini\u2019s house witnessed a major disagreement over football but it was not related to his recent move to Salford City<\/a>. The forward bought the property from the former Manchester United executive vice-chair Ed Woodward, who had fans at the gates showing their displeasure during his time at Old Trafford. \u201cBecause of the protest outside, everybody was worried, so I said: \u2018Don\u2019t worry I\u2019ll buy it, get the price down,\u2019\u201d Borini jokes.<\/p>\n

The former Italy international has a business mind and knows a good deal when it comes along. Joining Salford, however, was certainly not about the money. Following his departure from Sampdoria, where he endured a difficult final season after being ostracised, Borini wanted to play for the love of the game. He returned to his wife Erin\u2019s native north-west, where they had their Cheshire home, and searched for work.<\/p>\n

After time at a Professional Footballers\u2019 Association training camp for unemployed players, Borini was allowed to train at Salford to stay in shape and a month later, on 17 October, he signed until January after an injury to one of the strikers. \u201cI said to the club: \u2018Do what you can. I\u2019m not going to negotiate over a contract and a few hundred a year or day. It\u2019s about playing football, it\u2019s about you giving me the opportunity and me giving you the same opportunity to get promoted.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old has played for Chelsea, Liverpool and Milan and was an unused substitute in the 2012 European Championship final, but he was the one chasing Salford, aware of their enhanced status thanks to their co-owners Gary Neville and David Beckham. Others with his reputation and CV might have waited for the calls to come. An offer from Sydney arrived but the family upheaval was deemed too much.<\/p>\n

Fabio Borini by the \u2018Italian padel\u2019 courts he has helped to build at Worsley Sports Club. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Borini\u2019s friendship with Salford\u2019s assistant coach, Alex Bruce, helped to open the door there. \u201cThey said: \u2018You come and train, give a little bit to the group, be around the guys and help us through in a way to understand if we\u2019re doing the right things or the wrong things and you get fit,\u2019\u201d Borini says. \u201cThen an opportunity came along [to sign] and I said I want to play football. It doesn\u2019t really matter the league or context, it\u2019s about football. Salford is being built to be a proper football club. It\u2019s not like they\u2019re throwing money around for no reason \u2026 it\u2019s football people doing a football club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borini has played under some of the great Champions League-winning coaches, including Carlo Ancelotti, Jos\u00e9 Mourinho and Luis Enrique. Salford\u2019s head coach, Karl Robinson, is Liverpudlian, like Borini\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a lot worse than my wife,\u201d says Borini of understanding Robinson\u2019s accent. \u201cHe is very open to conversation, which is a clever way to approach it. I see him chatting to players all the time. He picks one or the other one and just asks a question or makes a silly joke, which is enough to break the ice from a distance \u2013 Ancelotti was doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borini, having ticked off the Merseyside, Milan, Tyne-Wear and Rome derbies, made his debut in a Greater Manchester one, coming on in a 1-0 win against Oldham in front of 4,000 people. \u201cThe buildup to the game, the preparation and even the tension for the game is different but then once you get to the stadium, the vibration I call it, the feelings, are the same because it\u2019s always the same game,\u201d says Borini. \u201cI made a joke after the game that there\u2019s a few elbows flying off the ball here that normally don\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borini and his family feel at home in England\u2019s north-west. Daughter Stella has just started school and son Lando arrived in July. Knowing the area well, Borini and his wife have offered advice to their old friend Gianluigi Donnarumma<\/a> on moving to the area. The players spent more than two years together at San Siro and have been reunited in Manchester, at opposite ends of the pyramid.<\/p>\n

Fabio Borini wins a header for Salford against Oldham. Photograph: Phill Smith\/MI News\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Borini wants to play for two or three more seasons but knows he is in the twilight of his career. He is studying global football business management with the hope of becoming a sporting director or chief executive. \u201cI like to be in charge,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n

He has started a business, Padel 16, opening four courts at Worsley Sports Club in Salford. There are lawn bowls and a cricket club on site, too. \u201cI did try bowls in a different club close to me, which I like; it\u2019s not bad. Cricket? No.\u201d Padel has become a popular pastime among footballers. Will he get Donnarumma down for a game?<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to lob him,\u201d Borini says. \u201cVery difficult to lob him, as it is difficult to score against him. But my wife has been in touch with his wife to help them out, giving him some tips on where to live \u2013 usual stuff which we always like when people did it with us. And we know how difficult it is, especially for someone like Gigi, who I know pretty well. Even if he looks like he\u2019s a big lad, he is quite shy, he doesn\u2019t know much English. It is difficult to move again and obviously being in the team straight away gives you less time to sort out all the other things. So my wife did all the bits, but I will invite them over for good wine. He knows that he can come to mine and eat good Italian food.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road to Wembley for Salford and Borini starts at home to League One Lincoln City in the FA Cup first round on Saturday, with Borini poised for his first start after cameos in victories against Oldham and Gillingham. Borini has fond memories of reaching the League Cup final in 2014<\/a> with Sunderland, scoring the opener. Manchester City ended up winning the trophy but the strike earned Borini cult status at the Stadium of Light, enhanced by his knife-in-mouth celebration. He was spotted in the away end at Old Trafford<\/a> this month among his adoring fans and maintains a close connection.<\/p>\n

Sunderland\u2019s Fabio Borini celebrates after opening the scoring in the 2014 League Cup final against Manchester City. Photograph: Eddie Keogh\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cSat? No. Standing a lot,\u201d he says of his Old Trafford trip. \u201cIt was different. It was definitely a fulfilling experience. Sometimes you have to hold your emotions a little bit because you have a lump [in your throat]. It has been almost 10 years since I left and I saw two people wearing my shirt and they didn\u2019t know I was coming, so that\u2019s fantastic. It is good because you see that happening with the iconic players. You don\u2019t expect it with me, that I\u2019m still playing. But it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borini and Erin donated their wedding gifts and money earned from selling photographs of the big day to a celebrity magazine to stem cell transplant charity Anthony Nolan. Borini remains philanthropic, working closely with Still I Rise, which has schools for vulnerable children in seven countries and was founded by the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Nicol\u00f2 Govoni. \u201cMy mum always passed me his books, explaining what he was doing, and then you get the emotional connection of doing things the right way. He slated a few bigger organisations [regarding] how they do charity, and I like his ways: he is direct, he doesn\u2019t care who he goes against, as long as it\u2019s honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Euphoric moments such as the one at Wembley are why Borini is still going, desperate not to lose the love of the game. \u201cI squeezed the lemon and got all the juice out,\u201d he says of his career. \u201cI fulfilled everything I could possibly, probably overachieved at times for what I possess because I knew and I know players that are a lot more talented than me and reach a lot less or for less time. I\u2019m happy with what I did. You want to finish your career with no regrets and I think I\u2019m doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fabio Borini\u2019s house witnessed a major disagreement over football but it was not related to his recent move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-250716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}