“We’ve conquered all of Europe, we’re never gonna stop…” – and they haven’t. The defeat to Real Madrid in Kyiv may have ended Liverpool’s Champions League dream, but it did very little to quell they’re love of the chant they coined during their sensational run to the final.
Now it seems every set of fans across the football league have their own unique rendition of the Allez! Allez Allez! chant, including Manchester City, whose version mocks Liverpool for their final loss. It has even reached its way to the Thatcher’s Big Bank with Exeter City singing to the tune, but where has this chant come from?
Predictably then, we look to Scotland, and in turn Celtic, from whom Liverpool acquired their iconic You’ll Never Walk Alone. Unsurprisingly, along with many others in the Scottish Premier League, Celtic have had their own rendition for a few seasons now, dedicated entirely to their talismanic full-back Kieran Tierney.
However, the Liverpool chant talks about conquering Europe, and much like Celtic, they have plundered this chant from their travels in the European competitions. The Italian’s will be more common with the chant under the name Un Giorno All’Improvviso or One Day Suddenly, where the lyrics invoke an impassioned vocalisation of the love the fans have for their city.
This version circulated around the lower leagues in Italy before Napoli adopted the chant into their folklore with rapper and fan Clementino releasing his own rendition in 2017. Coupling both the gravity and emotion with the locational ambiguity of the words, it would surely follow that the chant stemmed from some classical Italian poetry.
But no! Bizarrely, the chant started out life as any other chant does, with fans adapting the lyrics of a popular song. The song in question, the 1980’s dance hit for Righeira, L’estate Sta Finendo (Summer Is Ending in English). The original lyrics describe lost love and the melancholic feeling of summer ending. However, Righeira should not be so disheartened, as the end of summer brings with it the start of the football season, and thanks to the likes of Napoli and Liverpool, you’ll be hard pressed to go to a football league game this season without hearing the 80’s Italian pop melody in one form or another.
