Argentine Soccer Love Triangle Features Handshake Snubs and Lots of Selfies
By Mike Cardillo
Italy’s Serie A may have lost of its luster in recent seasons, but here comes a tawdry love story that might even make John Terry blush. The quick version: Argentinians Maxi Lopez and Mauro Icardi were formerly teammates at Sampdoria in 2012-13. During that time Lopez’s marriage to model Wanda Nara fell apart and Icardi — six years her junior — swooped in.
Icardi and Nara have been very public about their budding relationship on social media with all sorts of photos along with some that include Lopez’s three young children (and a lot of flat brim baseball caps). The Italian and Argentine versions of E! have probably had all sorts of fun with it. The couple have each tattooed the other’s name on their body and they’re now engaged .
There’s also this detail from Paolo Baldini in the Guardian today:
"Relentless Twitter users, they caused a stir in November by exchanging a series of tweets using the hashtag #Quindicina – reportedly a reference to the fact they had made love 15 times during a frantic 28-hour stay together in Argentina."
Sunday Icardi, now with Inter Milan, faced off against Sampdoria. In the pregame handshake lines Lopez blatantly snubbed his former friend.
The story didn’t end there, during the game Icardi scored twice to help Inter to a 4-0 win, while Lopez missed a penalty kick. Icardi celebrated the first goal by cupping his hand to his ear, trying to incite the fans which drew the wrath of his manager Walter Mazzarri.
Judging by the photos the couple posted afterward on Instagram they weren’t too broken up by the handshake snubb.
Meanwhile, if you run into Lopez buy him a drink or an expresso or something to try to cheer him up.