Italy Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Italy

The Most Popular Italian Sports

Find below Italy national sports, ranked by popularity:

So there you have them, the most popular sports in Italy! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Italy.

What is the National Sport of Italy ?

The national sport of Italy is Football.

Everyone in Italy loves football. From the rich North of the country to the historical southern part, both kids and grownups play and watch the game very often.

The football community is very strong in the country, and it is extremely passionate.

Learn More About Italy Popular Sports

Italy is a boot-shaped peninsula in Southern Europe, in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, and it is bordered by France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Vatican City and San Marino. Its capital city is Rome, which counts more than 2,860,000 inhabitants (but more than 4,342,000 if you include the metropolitan area).

An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Italy popular sports, and I hope you will love them:

Football

The most popular sport in Italy is, by far and away, football.

Football is close to a religion in the peninsula. The community is both vocal and passionate, and everyone likes to play and watch the game.

The national league is called the Serie A, and there are 20 clubs in this 80 year-old championship. The most famous Italian teams are Juventus Torino, AC Milano and AS Roma.

The Italian football team is one of the most successful teams in the history of the sport: it prides itself with 4 World Cups, the most recent UEFA Euro champions, and absolute legends of the sport like Gianluigi Buffon, Paolo Maldini and Dino Zoff.

Number of Football licensed players in Italy: 4,363,000

Famous Italian Football players: Gianluigi Buffon, Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Baggio, Andrea Pirlo, Dino Zoff, Paolo Rossi, Roberto Mancini, Alessandro Nesta, Marco Materazzi, Filippo Inzaghi, Carlo Ancelotti, Gennaro Gattuso

Basketball

The second most popular sport in Italy is basketball.

There are 6 main nations of basketball in Europe: Spain, Serbia, Greece, Lithuania, France… and Italy. The sport has a long and rich tradition in the country, and the national team is one of the most consistent EuroLeague winners.

The professional basketball league is the Lega Basket Series A, which has 16 teams. Some of the most successful Italian players in the NBA like Marco Belinelli and Danilo Gallinari started their career in the Lega.

Number of Basketball licensed players in Italy: 606,000

Famous Italian Basketball players: Danilo Gallinari, Marco Belinelli, Nicolò Melli, Luigi Datome, Andrea Bargnani, Nico Mannion, Stefano Rusconi, Vincenzo Esposito, Travis Diener, Alessandro Gentile

Volleyball

The third most popular sport in Italy is volleyball.

While the name of the sport is different in Italy (pallavolo), it is definitely as popular (if not more) as in many other countries. In fact, the Italian volleyball league is considered one of the most difficult and competitive in the world. Both men’s and women’s national teams are often ranked among the best teams in the world.

The most successful Italian volleyball clubs are Modena Volley (which won 12 titles), Volley Treviso (9 titles) and Parma (8 titles).

Number of Volleyball licensed players in Italy: 999,000

Famous Italian Volleyball players: Ivan Zaytsev, Francesca Piccinini, Carolina Costagrande, Caterina Bosetti, Eleonora Lo Bianco, Monica De Gennaro, Alessandro Fei, Paola Cardullo

Water sports

The fourth most popular sport in Italy is water sports.

The country of Italy is a peninsula, you already know that. The most famous coastline is the Amalfi Coast, but there are tons of others, with amazing beaches and beautiful landscapes. You guessed it, it is the perfect place for water sports.

Because yes, Italy is a huge fan of water sports, mostly water polo, swimming and diving. Water polo is popular among both amateurs and professionals, and the national team is ranked in the top 4 of the world. When it comes to swimming, Italy prides itself with legend Federica Pellegrini, who won a gold and a silver medal at the Olympic Games.

Number of Water sports licensed players in Italy: 3,480,000

Famous Italian Water sports players: Federica Pellegrini, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Gabriele Detti, Filippo Magnini, Santo Condorelli, Carolina Marcialis, Christian Presciutti, Elena Gigli, Roberta Bianconi, Giacomo Pastorino, Simona Abbate, Teresa Frassinetti, Federico Colosimo

Cycling

The fifth most popular sport in Italy is cycling.

Believe it or not, no other country has won the World Cycling Championship more than Italy. There are many very successful Italian cyclists, including Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali and Felice Gimondi.

The country also hosts one of the most famous cycling events in the world, the Giro d’Italia, in May. The event lasts for around 3 weeks, and is one of the 3 major Grand Tours alongside the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.

Number of Cycling licensed players in Italy: 1,321,000

Famous Italian Cycling players: Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali, Maurice Garin, Felice Gimondi, Alfredo Binda, Marco Pantani, Ottavio Bottecchia, Luigi Ganna, Francesco Moser, Gastone Nencini, Michele Bartoli, Vincenzo Nibali

Skiing

The sixth most popular sport in Italy is skiing.

Maybe you do not know about this, but Italy is a very mountainous region, especially in the northern part of the country. The Alps are shared with France, Switzerland and Austria among others, and offer some of the best ski trails in Europe. Not only Italians but also tourists from all around the globe enjoy skiing there.

The most popular variant of skiing is definitely alpine skiing. The country has achieved great results in the Winter Olympic Games overall.

Number of Skiing licensed players in Italy: 2,060,000

Famous Italian Skiing players: Alberto Tomba, Gustav Thöni, Stefania Belmondo, Deborah Compagnoni, Giorgio Di Centa, Pietro Piller Cottrer, Gabriella Paruzzi, Fulvio Valbusa, Isolde Kostner, Peter Fill

Tennis

The seventh most popular sport in Italy is tennis.

Tennis is quite popular in Italy, whether it is near courts and by the television. Maybe it would be even more popular if it was not often reserved to the upper classes.

When it comes to competitions, Italian professional tennis players are always in the top 100 world’s rankings, both for male and female. Some women players like Sara Errani, Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone have even been part of the top 10 in their careers.

Number of Tennis licensed players in Italy: 1,298,000

Famous Italian Tennis players: Fabio Fognini, Andreas Seppi, Adriano Panatta, Jannik Sinner, Flavia Pennetta, Francesca Schiavone, Matteo Berrettini, Nicola Pietrangeli, Sara Errani

Athletics

The eighth most popular sport in Italy is athletics.

There are almost a million athletes in Italy, and the reason for the sports to be so popular is because World or Olympic champions are often very celebrated people in Italy. On top of this, there are many national and international events all around the year.

The most successful Italian athletes include sprinter Pietro Mennea who held the 200 meters world record for 17 years (from 1979 to 1996), and who is still holder of the European record to this day.

Number of Athletics licensed players in Italy: 995,000

Famous Italian Athletics players: Dorando Pietri, Pietro Mennea, Luigi Beccali, Ugo Frigerio, Adolfo Consolini, Carlo Airoldi, Livio Berruti, Raimondo D’Inzeo

Rugby union

The ninth most popular sport in Italy is rugby union.

Rugby union is quite popular in Italy, especially in the North of the country. The sport has been around for more than a century, with the first official games in 1909, and some people say it was introduced by Italian workers returning from the South of France. However, the society that organized these first games was dissolved soon after, and the sport took a while to recover from that.

Now, Italy is part of the Six Nations Championship, and the sport is growing in popularity.

Number of Rugby union licensed players in Italy: 81,537

Famous Italian Rugby union players: Sergio Parisse, Alessandro Troncon, Mauro Bergamasco, Mirco Bergamasco, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Andrea Lo Cicero, Diego Domínguez, Martín Castrogiovanni

Motorsports

The tenth most popular sport in Italy is motorsports.

Who has never heard of Ferrari? The Formula One team and car manufacturer has been competing in the sport since 1950, right from the beginning. It is the most successful engine manufacturer in the sport, and their world champions include Michael Schumacher, Niki Lauda and Kimi Räikkönen among many others.

Italians are very passionate about motorsports in general, not only Formula One: motorcycle racing is also widely appreciated, and Valentino Rossi is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time.

Famous Italian Motorsports players: Valentino Rossi, Giacomo Agostini, Andrea Dovizioso, Max Biaggi, Marco Melandri, Giancarlo Fisichella, Enzo Ferrari, Giuseppe Farina, Alberto Ascari

Winter sports

The eleventh most popular sport in Italy is other winter sports.

There is so much to do in the snow that skiing is not the only popular winter sport in Italy. In fact, others like alpinism, ice hockey, figure skating and luge are all quite popular in the peninsula.

Some of the most famous alpine climbers in the history of the sport come from Italy: Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were the first to conquer the summit of K2, in 1954. Also, Reinhold Messner was the first man to climb Mount Everest alone and without oxygen!

Famous Italian Winter sports players: Achille Compagnoni, Lino Lacedelli, Reinhold Messner, Walter Bonatti, Eugenio Monti, Paul Hildgartner, Gerda Weissensteiner, Armin Zöggeler, Zeno Colò, Gustav Thöni, Piero Gros

Golf

The twelfth most popular sport in Italy is golf.

While it is last on this list, the sport is still appreciated in Italy. Similarly to tennis, it could be even more popular, were it not made for the upper and upper-middle classes.

There are quite a few professional men and women golf players in Italy, and there is also a national tournament: the Italian Open. The most successful Italian golfers are probably the Molinari brothers, who won the World Cup of Golf in 2009.

Number of Golf licensed players in Italy: more than 9,000

Famous Italian Golf players: Francesco Molinari, Edoardo Molinari, Andrea Pavan, Lorenzo Gagli, Costantino Rocca, Matteo Manassero, Sophie Sandolo, Massimo Mannelli, Mark Calcavecchia

So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Italy. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.

In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:

What sports did Italy invent?

There are 10 sports that originated in Italy, but not many of them are very famous: beach tennis, bocce, bocce volo, calcio fiorentino, palio, palla, pallone, tamburello, trucco and volata.

Tamburello is similar to tennis, bocce is very similar to bowls (and French “pétanque”), and palio is an annual athletic contest of a historical character, where people wear costumes and commemorate events and traditions that sometimes date back to the Middle Ages.

Did Italy invent soccer?

In the list of 10 Italian sports I just gave you, calcio fiorentino is very similar to football. And while Italy did not officially invent soccer, it definitely played very early forms of the sport.

Calcio fiorentino (which means “Florence soccer”) was widely played during the Middle Ages, especially in Florence, its originating city. It later became “calcio”, which is the current name of soccer in Italy.

More Sport Facts!

Loved these Italy sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?

Then check out these posts:

• Famous Sports in France
• Famous Sports in Portugal
• Famous Sports in Spain

Or click here to see ALL the facts up on the blog! Spoiler alert: there’s A LOT of them.

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