A Broughty Ferry Italian restaurant owner has paid tribute to his national football team – after his daughter was born on the day of their Euros triumph.
Marco Caira and wife Emma – who help to run Visocchi’s Café – welcomed their second child on Sunday, just hours before the Italians beat England to win Euro 2020.
The couple were struggling to come up with a name for their baby girl, who has a one-year-old brother, Valentino.
But they have now settled on Azzurra, based on the football side’s nickname, the Azzurri.
Marco said: “Valentino was such a great name, so when it came to naming the girl we didn’t have a scooby what to call her.
“The nickname for the Italian team is the Azzurri, which just means the blues.
Italy’s good luck charm
“Azzurro means blue in Italian so because they play in blue they’re called the Azzurri.
“A girl gets called Azzurra in Italy if she’s born with blue eyes or if she’s born very close to the sea, anything that has to do with blue.
“You don’t just call a girl Azzurra for no reason so this was the perfect opportunity to call her Azzurra because Italy won the match.”
Azzurra had a due date of July 6 but Marco was holding out hope she would arrive later in the tournament.
Marco, 34, said: “I told people I’d hoped she’d come on the day of the finals because if she does, she’ll be like a good luck charm and we could call her Azzurra.
“And that’s exactly what happened.”
Mum Emma, 30, said: “I was kind of just laughing it off thinking that was never going to happen.
“Then on Saturday night at midnight I started getting contractions and thought, ‘Really? Is that actually happening?’
“It was just an amazing experience and a once-in-a-lifetime story that Azzurra will be able to hear about all her life.”
Home in time for the match
The family managed to make it home in plenty time to watch the final.
Emma said: “All the midwives knew Marco wanted to go home and watch the match and said I was totally fine to go home.
“We just went home at our own time and then the match was on at night time and they won, which is crazy.
“She’s like our little Italian mascot.”
Marco added: “I was nervous the whole match and when we got to penalties I thought, I need a bit of luck here.
“I went over to my mother-in-law who was holding Azzurra at the time and gave her a kiss to get some good luck off of her and that’s when they won – so there you go, it was all meant to be.”
Marco, who is the cafe’s joint owner, says customers have made a special request on social media after hearing the news.
He said: “We shared the news on Facebook and Instagram, and customers starting messaging us saying that her middle name should be Mancini because of the Italian manager. I just thought this is crazy.
“I’ve been telling my wife that the customers want it and said that if Italy win we have to put Mancini as the middle name if her name is Azzurra.”
But Emma says she will have to think about it first.
On Sunday, Visocchi’s celebrated the Italians’ appearance in the final with free ice creams for customers.