In November last year, a new exhibition charting the country's football heritage was opened in the National Museum, San Marino, the fifth smallest country in the world, under the title “Challenging the Impossible.”
Within a week, staff were already planning to expand when the lowest-ranked nations among all 210 nations in the FIFA rankings completed the challenge somewhat faster than anyone expected.
On 18 November, San Marino secured promotion from the fourth and lowest tier of the UEFA Nations League with a 3-1 win over Liechtenstein to interest not only visitors to the Titanus Museum, but most of Europe.
Part-time footballers, full-time plumbers, shop workers – and, in the case of the most capped player Matteo Vitaioli, graphic designers – have been making national news across the continent. Moving over Spain, this is the San Marino moment.
The country, which has spent 20 years waiting to add its only ever victory, has recorded two wins in just over a month to go top of its group ahead of Liechtenstein and Gibraltar, who drew with Romania and Wales respectively earlier in 2024.
Not everyone needed to be alerted to San Marino's sudden rise. The tiny nation has already become a cult figure further afield, with a growing number of spectators enjoying the riches of a country where even scoring a goal, in which they have scored only 33 goals in their entire history, remains a novelty.
Much of their growing casual following has been fueled by the “San Marino Fan Account”, which has amassed nearly 200,000 followers on Matches, they always insist that San Marino's next opponent will pay the price for their latest defeat.
“We are writing history by scoring three games in a row” A particularly passionate example came in November 2023 and received more than two million views, after San Marino finished their Euro 2024 qualifying group by losing every match.
Fittingly, the mysterious, unnamed person behind the account was inspired to set it up because he couldn't find anywhere else posting English-language updates on San Marino's fortunes.
“I'm interested in football in small countries, but San Marino has always had a special place in my heart,” he said. Sky Sports. “When San Marino scores a goal, I usually get about 5,000 extra followers.
“It doesn't get much, if any, recognition from within the country. But that's okay, the players have to focus on making the nation proud. X is not a real thing in Italy or San Marino, so I think they hardly realize it.” I would love for them to be online.”
With chirps of joy usually accompanying those consolation goals, or if they were very lucky the occasional goalless draw, no one inside or outside the country was prepared for any real success.
Over four matches between September and November, San Marino notched their first ever official win, added a second with their first away win, and enjoyed their best time in November in Liechtenstein, where they came from behind to win 3-1 and deliver the biggest shocks you can live in in a slightly bigger country. From Middlesbrough.
“It's a nice feeling after all these years of defeats,” Vitaioli says. Sky Sportsstill emotional for about a month. “We were welcomed as heroes in San Marino. It was unbelievable.”
At 17 he became San Marino's youngest ever player in 2007, and is now the elder statesman of the team at 35. After 103 caps, 97 losses and five draws, and after a five-minute cameo at the end of the Liechtenstein match, he has one win – almost a career Complete in making.
“It's something so big for us that we may not yet understand what really happened,” he adds. “It repays all the sacrifices we've made all these years.
“We knew we were playing well, but getting promoted to the next league was still a dream. But sometimes, dreams come true, especially if you never give up.”
By all appearances, San Marino was unable to achieve the dream of any country on its own. Two hundred and fifty miles from the Pope's home, divine intervention was felt more concretely supported. Or, as it turned out, UEFA.
The League of Nations, the brainchild of the governing body, succeeded in leveling the playing field for smaller nations, but not before it was too late.
In two qualifying tournaments prior to the inaugural competition in 2018, Samarines conceded 90 goals and scored three goals in 20 matches, drawing once against Estonia.
But that new platform alone can't explain their rise either. San Marino's group in the European Nations League four years ago also included Liechtenstein and Gibraltar, and occupied last place with two draws and two losses. They have only conceded three times, but have not scored a goal themselves.
The roots of this moment in the sun go back a decade to UEFA-funded investment in infrastructure including a generational renovation of the national stadium and a new center for the San Marino Academy, which runs youth teams up to Under-19 level. Seven of San Marino's newest squad are alumni.
“UEFA's support was decisive,” Marco Torra, president of the San Marino Football Association, said after the team's victory in the European Nations League. “It changed our mentality and vision of football.
“UEFA has guided us at every step of our organizational and technical development, enabling us to raise the level of football not only economically but also structurally and technically.”
The one thing UEFA has been unable to provide is the right manager to take advantage of the brightest young players the country has ever produced.
Fabrizio Costantini has put in a lot of groundwork following his move from the Under-21s to the national team in 2022, lowering the squad's average age significantly and briefly equalizing against Denmark in October last year before Yusuf Poulsen's goal saved the mother of all shocks and one . Broken caps lock.
His successor, Roberto Civoli, has taken things to new heights, naming the smallest average international squad in all of Europe in 2024.
The rewards did not take long to pay off, with 24-year-old Nicolas Nani the standout star of the UEFA Nations League campaign, scoring a last-minute penalty to equalize in Gibraltar in the penultimate game before scoring to complete the turnaround in Vaduz. last month.
Vitaioli adds: “All the credit must go to the manager's style.” “He was a breath of fresh air and brought new motivation to the team.”
In all likelihood, this will be good for Samarines, given that Albania, Finland and possibly Slovakia – all teams who qualified for the last tournaments – await them in League C of the 2026/27 Nations League.
By then, there is still as little chance as the country itself of having a place in the 2026 World Cup.
Four Nations League group winners who finished in the top two of their World Cup qualifying groups will be added to the qualifiers next November for one of the four finals spots.
There is a real chance that San Marino could be among these teams, although winning two more matches to reach the USA, Canada and Mexico seems nothing more than a dream. But then – that's how they got here in the first place.
