Italian Soccer Teams Pay Tribute To Ennio Morricone

News this week that Ennio Morricone, the composer of numerous timeless film scores, had died at the age of 91 was met with an outpouring of grief and tribute from the international film community. But that emotion also stretched well beyond the biz, as was evidenced at this week’s round of soccer fixtures in his native Italy.

Morricone, a lifelong fan of the capital city team AS Roma, received tributes up and down the country, including at his hometown club, which showed pictures of the composer and took the unconventional move of playing his score for Once Upon A Time In America through the stadium’s loudspeakers as players walked out for Roma v Parma (which the hometown team won 2-1, Morricone would no doubt have been delighted).

The Roma players also sported tributes to Morricone on their jersey, with the caption “grazie maestro”.

Earlier this week, similar tribute was paid ahead of the AC Milan v Juventus match, with the iconic San Siro stadium in the northern Italian city also playing a rendition of the same score, while displaying a pic of Morricone picking up his Oscar for The Hateful Eight, ahead of a rousing 4-2 victory for the home side (apparently Morricone was a good luck charm). One twitter user posted a video from the pre-match:

Morricone died in Rome on Monday following complications from a fall last week. He took the unusual move of writing his own obituary, which you can read here. For a bit of nostalgic fun, you can also see our picture gallery of seven timeless Morricone scores here.