Joel Pohjanpalo, the new small town bomber

There was an era in Italian football, now shrouded in a fog of nostalgia, when there were so many strong strikers that some of them did not even make it into the big teams and so became provincial phenomena, mythological figures who in time became bigger than the city itself. Over the decades, the talent in the Italian football scene has been gradually diluted, leaving the pitches deserted without the bombers who once terrorised opposing gates. Occasionally, however, footballers still emerge who are able to reverse this trend by bringing into less footballingly established cities superior players who are able to suddenly raise the level and build a very strong relationship with the fans and the team. It is no coincidence that the latest addition to this long genealogy has emerged in the lagoon, where he has quickly become the captain, draught horse and soul of Venezia. We are talking, of course, about Joel Pohjanpalo, who became an icon last weekend because he drank a beer after scoring four goals in the Serie B home match against Modena.

After all, to be a true provincial bomber you need not only goals, and Pohjanpalo has just joined Lapadula at the top of the Serie B scoring charts, but above all attitude, aesthetics. And in this respect, the Finnish striker has little to mourn after his famous predecessors. Tall, blond, with long hair tousled by the wind like a Nordic goddess and the coolness of a fjord, just the right amount of exoticism in a city by the sea, Pohjanpalo immediately clicked with the Serenissima. Unlike many of his orange and green companions, he has chosen to live in the historic centre of Venice, in touch with the fans he meets as he strolls the calle and canals, treating himself to a cicchetto in the bacoli and an ombra to celebrate victories. During the week, you can easily find him at the tables of his favourite restaurants. He is always ready to respond in Venetian to requests for photos and autographs in English and finally feels at home after a career that has taken him all over Europe.

And it is precisely this symbiosis he has formed with the city that has made him an icon, a Finnish transplanted to what he said after the game against Modena was the most beautiful city in the world. "No city can hold a candle to it and I enjoy it. I like scoring at home to please the fans" who, thanks to his goalscoring prowess, have finally moved out of the relegation zone and ever closer to the play-offs. It's a result that could lift Pohjanpalo's northern profile alongside that of the city's Dogi, perhaps along with a beer, the detail that makes a great striker a true provincial bomber. Like Dario Hubner's cigarettes at half-time, Pohjanpalo's pint is a symbol of a football that does not take itself so seriously, less perfect and more human, played by the same people we meet at the bar and not by aliens created in secret laboratories.