Last November in the fifth smallest country in the world San Marino, a new exhibition opened in the national museum documenting the country's football heritage with the title “Impossible Challenge “.
Within a week, workers were already planning for expansion when the lowest level of 210 FIFA countries completed that challenge a little faster than expected.
On November 18, San Marino was promoted from the fourth and lowest level of the League of Nations with a 3-1 victory in Liechtenstein to arouse interest not only from visitors to the Titanus Museum, but much of the Region Europe.
The part-time footballers, full-time plumbers, shop workers – and graphic designers, in the case of the biggest player Matteo Vitaioli – were making national news across the continent. Move over Spain, it's San Marino time.
A country that had spent 20 years waiting to add to their only ever record victory finished two up in just over a month to win their group ahead of Liechtenstein and Gibraltar, who Romania and Wales had previously held it in 2024.
Not everyone needed warning about San Marino's shocking rise. The micro-state had already become a cult figure further afield, with a growing number of onlookers enthralled by the fortunes of a country where even visiting, where they have only managed 33 in their entire history, still a novelty.
Many of the growing following were followed by the 'San Marino Fan Account', which has amassed nearly 200,000 followers on X since June 2019 posting optimistic, borderline fanatical tongue-in-cheek and regularly block-capital takes during every country in the country. games, always sure to make San Marino's next opponents pay for their last defeat.
“WE WILL WRITE HISTORY BY SCORING THREE FINALS IN A ROW,” one example was so enthusiastic in November 2023 and gathered more than two million views, after San Marino finished the qualifying group Euro 2024 by losing every game.
Fittingly, the mysterious, anonymous figure behind the account was inspired to set it up because he couldn't find anywhere else posting English-language updates on San Marino's fortunes.
“I'm interested in soccer micro-states, but San Marino has always had a special place in my heart,” he explains. Sky Sports. “When San Marino scores, I usually get about 5,000 more fans.
“He doesn't get much, if any recognition within the country. But that's okay, the players have to focus on making the country proud. love they get online.”
With the tweets of keyboard joy usually accompanying these consolation goals, or if they were very lucky to draw from time to time without a goal, no one inside or outside the country was ready for a real success.
Over four games between September and November, San Marino secured their first ever competitive win, added a second with their first away win, and enjoyed their finest hour of the season. -November in Liechtenstein, coming from behind to win 3-1 and send the biggest shockwaves. you can get through a little bit more country than Middlesbrough.
“It's a beautiful feeling after all these years of victories,” says stalker Vitaioli Sky Sportsstill emotional almost a month on. “We were welcomed like heroes in San Marino. It was unbelievable.”
At the age of 17, he became San Marino's youngest ever player in 2007 and is now the team's elder statesman at 35 after 103 caps, 97 defeats, five draws and , after a five-minute cameo at the end of that Liechtenstein game, one win – almost. an entire career in the making.
“It's such a big thing for us that we still may not have understood what really happened,” he said. “It brings back all the sacrifices we've made in those years.
“We knew we were playing well, but to be promoted to the next league – that still felt like a dream. But sometimes, dreams come true, especially if you never give up. “
All the publicity in San Marino could not make a country's dream come true on its own. Two hundred and fifty miles away from the Pope's home, divine intervention felt more reasonable support. Or, as it turned out, UEFA.
The governing body's brain child, the League of Nations, has leveled the playing field for smaller nations, and not before long.
In two qualifying tournaments before the first competition was launched in 2018, the Sammarinese had conceded 90 goals and scored three times in 20 games, picking up a solitary draw against Estonia.
But that new platform alone can't explain their ascent either. Liechtenstein and Gibraltar were also in San Marino's Nations League group four years ago, and finished bottom with two draws and two losses. They only conceded three times, but did not manage a single goal themselves.
The main roots of their time in the sun stretch back a decade to UEFA-funded infrastructure investment including a generational renovation of the national stadium and a new facility for the San Marino Academy , who operate youth sides up to U19 level. Seven of the newest San Marino team are graduates.
“UEFA's support has been vital,” San Marino FA president Marco Tura said after their Nations League victory. “It changed our mindset and our outlook on football.
“UEFA guided us in every step of our organizational and technical development, enabling us to raise the level of football not only economically but also structurally and technically.”
One thing UEFA could not provide was the right manager to take advantage of the brightest crop of young players the country has ever produced.
Fabrizio Costantini laid down much of the groundwork after graduating from the U21s to the national team in 2022, significantly reducing the average age of the squad and equalizing briefly against Denmark last October before sending winner Yussuf Poulsen stopped the mother of all shocks and one broken cap lock.
His successor, Roberto Cevoli, has taken things to new heights, naming the youngest average international line-up across Europe in 2024.
The rewards didn't take long to pay off with 24-year-old Nicola Nanni, the star of this Nations League campaign, netting a last-minute penalty to earn a draw in Gibraltar in the ' their last match before they were scored to complete the turnaround in Vaduz. last month.
“All credit has to go to the manager's approach,” Vitaioli said. “He has been a real breath of fresh air and has given the team new motivation.”
This is likely to be as good as it gets for the Sammarinese, as Albania, Finland and possibly Slovakia – all sides who have qualified for tournaments recently – await them in League C of the Nations League 2026/27.
Until then, there is still as little chance as the country itself that a place at the 2026 World Cup could be on the cards.
The winners of the four Nations League groups that finish outside the top two in their World Cup qualifying groups will be added to the play-offs next November for one of four places in the finals.
There's a decent chance that San Marino could be among them, although they don't win two more games to make it to the USA, Canada and Mexico feel like little more than a dream. But then – that's how they got here in the first place.
