Nico Censoli, a semi-professional footballer in Italy's fourth division, became a national hero in San Marino on Thursday.
In the 53rd minute of the UEFA Nations League match between San Marino and Liechtenstein, Censoli scored the winning goal, a goal that was not only significant in this particular match, but also historic: the 1-0 victory was San Marino's first ever victory in an official match.
In fact, the San Marino national team has only ever left the pitch winning once: in 2004, 14 months before Sensori was born, the team beat – you guessed it – Liechtenstein 1-0 in a friendly match.
After more than 20 years, the country finally had a “real” victory, and the reaction was fitting.
San Marino wins their first game in over 20 years and their first competitive game ever!!!
History has been made as the lowest ranked team in the FIFA rankings (210th) finally ends the longest winless streak in the history of international football (140 games since April 2004)!!! pic.twitter.com/xbB3M2WQUE
— Sweeper (@SweeperPod) September 5, 2024
It has certainly been a long journey for San Marino to achieve their first official victory.
The country's men's national soccer team, founded in 1990, had played 176 official matches between World Cup qualifiers, European Championship qualifiers and Nations League matches as of Thursday. Of those matches, 171 ended in defeat and five games ended in 0-0 (four) or 1-1 (one) draws. During that time, San Marino had scored 23 goals and conceded 750.
The team's inability to play any kind of competitive football had left San Marino languishing at the bottom of the FIFA world rankings by Thursday, with the tiny country ranked 210th out of 210 national teams.
By comparison, Liechtenstein, ranked 199th in the world, came into Thursday's match like a powerhouse. But in the end, that didn't matter.
For the first time, San Marino can call itself a winner.
