The international footballer who’s now a computer salesman: Davide Gualtieri reveals how he left football for a normal life

FourFourTwo has met the computer shop owner like no other: he scored the fastest international goal of the 20th Century.

Davide Gaultieri was the opening scorer when England visited Bologna to play San Marino in 1993, needing to win by seven clear goals to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Other results didn’t go their way that day – but the Three Lions “only” won 7-1 in the end.

“These days, I’m a computer salesman with a small company and a shop,” Gaultieri says. “Things turned out well, and many of my team-mates from that England game are doing fine. Our goalkeeper, Pierluigi Benedettini, has a bus company. He was at the wheel in 1993 – he drove from San Marino to Bologna and back!

Davide Gualtieri broke the record for the fastest-ever international goal (Image credit: Alamy)

“Nicola Bacciocchi has a hardware store with his brother, Mirco Gennari works in the pharmaceutical industry and Loris Zanotti has a construction company. Mauro Valentini is an accountant, Massimo Bonini is an estate agent, Claudio Canti works at San Marino Mail and Pier Domenico Della Valle is employed by the San Marino state electricity company.

“William Guerra is a painter, while Pierangelo Manzaroli is the manager of a local football academy. I also coach San Giovanni, a small futsal club here. There are 30,000 people in San Marino and even now, 30 years on, everyone remembers me and my goal. 

“I did something unique – a feat that locals directly associate with their country. My pals and I still talk about it when we go out for dinner; they show me pictures of me 30 years ago, when I still had all of my hair.

“They joke, ‘Eight seconds – exactly how long you last in bed!’ and ‘That watch must have been damaged!'”

More England stories

Theo Walcott says he should never have gone to the 2006 World Cup at just 17-years-old.

The FA confirms that it will consider Sarina Wiegman for the England men’s national team job after Gareth Southgate.

Tottenham legend Ledley King explains why his finest moment in an England shirt was also the beginning of the end for him. 

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