Cheering fans stream up Corso Andrea Palladio in the historic center of Vicenza, Italy, to celebrate the L.R. Vicenza soccer team’s promotion to Serie B, the second-highest tier of Italy’s professional soccer pyramid, after the team’s match with Brescia, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
VICENZA, Italy — A raucous parade through the city’s historic center Sunday is a sign of things to come for local soccer fans, after L.R. Vicenza’s promotion to Serie B, the second-highest tier of Italy’s professional soccer pyramid.
Next season likely will bring more thrilling matches and bigger crowds, say some soccer fans at U.S. Army bases in the area.
“It’s going to bring more fans to the stadium and it’s going to make the traffic and everything harder,” said Sgt. Arthur de Assis, 35, who grew up playing soccer in Brazil and coached teams in New York City before joining the Army.
At the weekend parade, songs and chants echoed down Corso Andrea Palladio as thousands of fans streamed into the pedestrian zone and toward Piazza dei Signori to celebrate the club’s Serie C title. Red-and-white-striped police tape that cordoned off the piazza matched the colors of scarves, flags and banners the fans waved triumphantly.
The procession from Romeo Menti Stadium followed Vicenza’s afternoon match against rival Brescia, where red smoke had clouded the stadium and occasional fireworks explosions punctuated fans’ cheers.
A trio of fans for the professional soccer team in Vicenza, Italy, decked out in the team's colors, wave flags as they participate in a parade through the historic center of the city on March 29, 2026, to celebrate the team's return to Serie B, the second tier of Italy's professional soccer pyramid. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
The match itself was relaxed, but the afterparty “was pretty, pretty crazy,” said Devin Koren, 42, a Vicenza native who works at the U.S. Army postal service center on Caserma Ederle on the city’s east side.
The game, which ended in a 1-1 tie, drew more than 11,500 attendees, including nearly 8,000 season ticket holders, according to Il Giornale di Vicenza.
After the match, the Vicenza team accepted the league trophy and showed it around the stadium before heading outside to board a roofless double-decker bus for the trip downtown, thronged by cheering fans, Koren said.
While Capt. Jess Sant, 39, couldn’t attend Sunday’s events, he’s been to several games since arriving at Caserma Del Din earlier this year, including a match against Milan’s Inter U-23 earlier this month, at which Vicenza secured their promotion to Serie B.
“It was a wild atmosphere. Probably one of the best atmospheres that I’ve seen,” said Sant, a native of Sayville, New York, on Long Island, who’s attended games in South America and England.
Sant usually watches from the Curva Sud, the area of the stadium behind the goal, that’s packed with Vicenza’s diehard fan clubs, he said.
“It’ll be fun next year,” he said. “There’ll definitely be some more exciting games. For me it’s going to be better quality football.”
Fans of the L.R. Vicenza soccer team fill Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, Italy, awaiting the team's arrival for a celebration of its promotion to Serie B, the second-highest tier of Italy's professional soccer pyramid, on March 29, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
He said he’d tell other soldiers to “just get the experience, especially next year,” but recommends watching from the family section.
Sant’s officially a fan of West Ham United in England, the result of an ultimatum issued by his father-in-law, who lives near London’s East End.
“He gave me two options: I could either support West Ham, or I could [expletive] off,” Sant said.
But “it’s not really a conflict of interest” to cheer for Vicenza, he said, because they’re in different leagues in different countries.
Though it’s a game of heated rivalries, being a fan has given Sant a chance to build long-term friendships with fellow fans and even passing camaraderie with foes.
Once, on a military base in Qatar, he heard a sailor’s East End accent and asked if he rooted for West Ham. He did not — he supported a local rival — but that didn’t stop them from hanging out.
While Sant did not grow up playing soccer, de Assis grew up playing “basically my whole life” and says it’s also been a way for him to connect with others while serving in the Army. For example, he played with community members outside Fort Carson, Colo., and Polish civilians while deployed there.
Fans at Romeo Menti Stadium in Vicenza, Italy, cheer on the L.R. Vicenza soccer team on March 29, 2026, during a match with Brescia. Following the match, thousands streamed to the city's historic center to celebrate the team's promotion to Serie B, the second-highest tier of Italy's professional soccer pyramid. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
“You can see people that would never talk with each other in the real world, soccer will bring these people together,” he said. “I think that’s what’s awesome about soccer.”
Sunday’s event drew fans of teams outside Italy that are “twinned” with Vicenza, such as the one in Metz, France, said Koren, who runs a club for about 120 local fans of Vicenza in an area south of the city.
Sant has a theory about why the sport draws people together:
“At the end of the day, for a lot of football fans…we say football is religion.”
Cheering fans stream up Corso Andrea Palladio in historic center of Vicenza, Italy, to celebrate the L.R. Vicenza soccer team's promotion to Serie B, the second-highest tier of Italy's professional soccer pyramid, after the team's match with Brescia on March 29, 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
