A footballer (soccer player, for Americans) with a huge tattoo of Jesus is going viral.
The athlete’s name is Pasquale Mazzocchi, a 26-year-old from Naples who now plays with the Salernitana club. He has a “supernatural talent,” and earned his way into Serie A (the top Italian league) with sweat, sacrifice, and willpower.
Mazzocchi loves tattoos. He uses them to highlight the things he’s most attached to in life. He decided to get a huge tattoo across his entire back: he didn’t choose dragons, skulls, or slogans, but a beautiful image of Jesus with a crown of thorns, clearly inspired by the famous image of actor Robert Powell in the lead role of Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth.
A dream born on the outskirts of Naples
For this footballer, his family is everything, starting with the wife he met in his youth and has never left. Mazzocchi is humble: he has remained the same and every time he goes back to Barra, in the outskirts of Naples, he transforms back into the child who had to leave there at the age of 11 to pursue a dream. The dream came true, bringing joy to himself, his family, his friends, and an entire neighborhood, which today considers him an example.