Monday in Bursa gave the Esposito family another place in Italy’s football story, as Sebastiano and Pio Esposito were named in the starting line-up together for Turkey-Italy.
It was the first start for both brothers in the Azzurri shirt, and it also ended a wait of 111 years for two brothers to begin a match in Italy’s XI on the same evening. For a family already accustomed to sharing the game across different clubs and divisions, this was a new kind of landmark: no longer parallel careers on a league weekend, but one national-team occasion.
A family moment beyond the league
- On 8 December 2024, all three Esposito brothers scored during the same championship matchday.
- Salvatore and Pio found the net for Spezia in Serie B, while Sebastiano scored for Empoli.
- The three goals arrived within a 45-minute spell, making that Sunday an unusual family chapter in Italian football.
- The occasion in Bursa went further, with Sebastiano and Pio beginning Turkey-Italy together from the first whistle.
Salvatore was not alongside them on the pitch in Turkey, but the brothers’ shared path remained central to the significance of the night. Their goals in December had shown the family name appearing at different points of an Italian league afternoon; Bursa brought two of them together in the starting side of the national team.
For Sebastiano and Pio, it was a first beginning rather than merely another call-up. For Italian football, the pairing carried the weight of a record that had stood for more than a century.
