Sicilian soccer is dangerous

Was it one of these guys?

You would think that playing in Sicily would be light-hearted and carefree.  After all, the locals have the worldwide reputation for being easy-going and even-handed.  Unfortunately, though, that reputation doesn’t always play out in real life.  Sometimes the locals shoot at you.

It is being reported that yesterday Palermo players Edinson Cavani and Nicolas Bertolo were attacked while stopped at a red light.  Two assailants on a motorbike pulled up alongside the South Americans and opened fire on the car.  Fortuitously (someone obviously knows the true reputation of the area), the car appears to have been bullet-proofed, as none of the bullets entered the vehicle.

Cavani and Bertolo were interviewed by police over the shooting and allowed to go home where, no doubt, they slept soundly with no fear whatsoever.

While I will say that there is a part of me that is screaming out to take this as fake, the Italian press seems to be covering it fairly heavily.  Unfortunately, whatever the Eye-Tie equivalent of TMZ is has so far failed to produce any pictures of a bullet-riddled car.  So, for now, we are putting this in the “true enough” file with the hope we have not been duped.

Palermo’s official statement (it’s in Italian, y’all)