What do football and cooking have to do with each other? Indeed, nothing.
However, the most attentive will not have missed the reason for my approach to cooking, which was precisely the desire to harmonize my love for food with the needs of an athlete, first as an amateur footballer and then as a fitness lover, by experimenting with tailor-made recipes.
Football has always been a deep passion of mine, despite a dad who did not show the same interest in it. My passion was born thanks to a Panini sticker given to me at just 8 years old by a classmate, portraying Stefano Tacconi, Juventus’ goalkeeper.
That sticker probably determined many aspects of my life: the role of goalkeeper that brought me to competitive sports, through which I met most of my dearest friends, the mustache that has been on my face since I was 22, the insane and disgraceful infatuation with Juve when I was still just a kid, which was soon overcome and disintegrated, fortunately, by my love for the colors of my city, pink and black, my beloved rosanero. On my mother’s side, after all, my surname is Barbera; does this surname sound familiar?
This passion has accompanied me around Italy, forcing my poor dad to take me as a child to Trapani during the pre-World Cup exile of ’90, and then took me from the football Stadium “ Olimpico” for the Coppa Italia’s final with Inter all the way to Palmi, in Serie D.
Passion is irrational, after all, as is football.
Today, this passion has also turned into a pleasant reason for producing content on social media platforms, which is quite appreciated by the Rosanero fans and not only.
This new role of Content Creator, as experts call it, often takes me to TV lounges and fan forums as a commentator, and I do not hide my pride in discovering that I am often appreciated as a rosanero flag-bearer.
Just like with Masterchef, I enjoy this entirely unexpected chapter with no demands or expectations, because the beautiful things in life should be lived as they come.
Forza Palermo!