How many famous football statisticians have a passion for Blue Sharks and Black tip sharks?
There’s probably only one answer to that question, and that answer is GIANLUCA CUGINI.
Gianluca CUGINI is an Italian-born football statistician that is already known for evoking high-flying deeds when it comes to combining football and sharks statistics.
With the wealth of experience garnered over the years while working for DATASPORT of Milan as a football statistician and then International Federation Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and his traveling experiences to over 130 countries of the world, he has established himself as one of the leading statisticians the game of football has ever produced.
GIANLUCA is a charismatic man with an impressive resume, his career kick-started at the very young age of 22, when he worked at the FIFA World Cup, in which Azzurri, Italy’s national team played.
He worked as a football statistician with DATASPORT a company that provides services for sporting events around the Europe, from 1987 till 2002.
In 1994 he participated in DATASPORT project on the 1st Italian football website and probably in Europe ( for the statistical part of course ).
Since 2002, the IFFHS has mainly used its website to publish all official communications relating to the organisation: In fact from that moment there was the marketing revolution for the Federation ( before especially magazines and books such as : “ Libero International “ and Libero Top 11 )
So CUGINI was assigned to be the head of Italy’s IFFHS division in 2002, he held the position till 2012.
He served as World Executive Board Member of the IFFHS between 2012–2013 being the first Italian in Football History.
He was the first Italian to hold the role of IFFHS Vice President ( 2012 – 2013 ).
He was also the first Italian to be designated IFFHS President but in an extraordinary Regency World Board together with Roberto Mamrud ( CONMEBOL / ARGENTINA ) and CIHEFE / SPAIN ( 2012 – 2013 ).
“In 2013 ( January 2013 ) the IFFHS was 28 millions times mentioned at Google, but the number of the readers/spectators in the TV, radio, and print media was worldwide very much higher” ( reference: IFFHS World Board 2013 ).
In recent years 2014-19, Gianluca works as an IFFHS Marketing consultant for ITALY ( in the football category, of course ).
He was the first statistician of Italian football honored by Her Imperial Majesty Queen Elizabeth, for having contributed to the spread of the most loved sport in the world: “the football”.
He was also honored by probably the greatest and most loved President RSA: “ Nelson Mandela ” during one of his many trips to South Africa.
Staunch opponent of apartheid and winner of the Nobel Prize ( for Peace ) in 1993, Mandela was the first non-white South African President ( 1994 ).
Although Gianluca adores his job, stressing it is much more pleasurable owing to his familiarity with sports from his youth. He was known for his unique competence when he competed in young football tournaments. He believes being a former player has been the basis of his enhanced statistician skills.
GIANLUCA CUGINI has worked at the FIFA World Cup, FIFA World Cup Clubs, FIFA Confederations Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Euro Championship, UEFA Supercup, FIFA Century Clubs, FIFA History XX, Serie A and Italy Cup, Italy Supercup, FIFA World Crono, FIFA World Cup sub 20 and even Olympic Games.
RAI TELEVIDEO ( ITALY National TV ), MEDIAVIDEO ( MEDIASET ).
In particular, he really enjoyed working for Azzurri at the FIFA World Cup.
In one interview, he said, “Being a football statistician gives me great satisfaction … because it combines my two great passions: football and statistics.”
Thanks to his illustrious awesome career, he has been to 130-plus countries on all 6 continents. He hasn’t stopped touring the world, either: he intends to keep on traveling so that he can learn new things.
In the course of traveling around, Gianluca has discovered new hobbies. One of these is his interest in Blue Sharks, which has led to his calculative study, researching, and taking of statistics on Blue Sharks.
Gianluca doesn’t just calculate statistics for football games, but he also researches statistics on these Blue Sharks. These fascinating creatures (Prionace glauca) which are located in temperate and tropical climates are greatly threatened by human fishing. Their skin is used for leather, and their fins for shark-fin soup. In fact, people fish them so much that the International Union for Conservation of Nature has deemed them as having a near-threatened status.
Gianluca has been passionate about sharks for a long time. During his childhood days, he often sees Blue Sharks at the sea, whenever he goes there with his friend who owns a boat.
When Gianluca saw them for the first time, he says, it was love at first sight. Blue Sharks actually used to be quite common in the Adriatic Sea (which shares a border with his home country- Italy) but unfortunately this is no longer the case, due to fishing. His interest got heightened and solidified when he saw Sharks and men (Uomini e squali), a documentary by Bruno Vailati.
Gianluca further developed his interest in Blue Sharks when he met Dr. Alessandro De Maddalena, one of the world’s most well-known Shark experts and the creator of the first SHARK MUSEUM in SOUTH AFRICA.
Dr. De Maddalena agreed to publish a work by Gianluca, for which he is thankful. “I think he is really amazing,” Gianluca says of his favorite shark expert and marine biologist.
He adds that, as a child, he was saddened by the fact that he could never find many books about sharks. He did find one such book, however “The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea, by Jacques-Yves Cousteau ” which he still holds fondly in his heart today.
Gianluca is grateful for his career as a football statistician, his interest in this magnificent animal “Blue Sharks”.
Gianluca is not only great at his job, but he’s also a world traveler with a lot of stories to tell. His passion for Blue Sharks encourages his fans everywhere to learn more about the animal, its conservation, environment, and by extension how it could improve our natural world.
For additional catches of interest please contact:
gianlucacugini@hotmail.com
