Gianni Infantino
Jul 11, 2026 · 15 min · 10 segments
The FIFA president grew up in Switzerland as part of an Italian migrant family, and fell in love with football and its administration when he was just a teenager. Having qualified as a football…
Jul 11, 2026 · 15 min · 10 segments
The FIFA president grew up in Switzerland as part of an Italian migrant family, and fell in love with football and its administration when he was just a teenager. Having qualified as a football…
Sam KnightGuest
Melissa ReddyGuest
Lee WellingsGuestAlex HorneGuestOne of three children, he was born in 1970 to Italian parents, Maria and Vincenzo, who moved to Switzerland to find work.
Sam Knight, a staff writer at The New Yorker, who wrote an extensive profile of Infantino recently, takes up the story.
His father worked on the, the night trains that ran under the, the Swiss Alps, and his mother ran a kiosk at the, uh, the train station in Brig, which is a kind of small alpine town where, where Infantino grew up.
[piano music] As a baby, he suffered serious health problems, needed a blood transfusion to survive, he said.
As a child, at school, I was bullied because I had, uh, red hair, and I had these red, how do you call them? Uh Freckles.
Freckles.
Freckles.
Sorry? Freckles.
Freckles.
You see, I don't even know the term.
You know, he's, he's born in early 1970, and just a few months after he's born, Switzerland has a referendum, which is about limiting the population, limiting the number of migrants coming to the country, which was directly aimed at Italian migrants like him and like his family.
[singing] When he was 12, Italy won the 1982 World Cup in Spain, he and his family making homemade flags, crossing the Swiss border into Italy to join in with the celebrations.
At 20, he decided he was going to be a football lawyer, studied law at the University of Freiburg, eventually ending up in 2000, age 30, working for the European Football Association, UEFA.
He became the head of its legal department, and a protege of then UEFA president, the flamboyant French footballing legend, Michel Platini, rising rapidly through the ranks, by 2009 becoming general secretary.
Alex Horne was a senior figure at the English FA back then, went on to be its general secretary.
He worked alongside Infantino on a number of UEFA initiatives, and remembers him well.
One of three children, he was born in 1970 to Italian parents, Maria and Vincenzo, who moved to Switzerland to find work.
Sam Knight, a staff writer at The New Yorker, who wrote an extensive profile of Infantino recently, takes up the story.
His father worked on the, the night trains that ran under the, the Swiss Alps, and his mother ran a kiosk at the, uh, the train station in Brig, which is a kind of small alpine town where, where Infantino grew up.
[piano music] As a baby, he suffered serious health problems, needed a blood transfusion to survive, he said.
As a child, at school, I was bullied because I had, uh, red hair, and I had these red, how do you call them? Uh Freckles.
Freckles.
Freckles.
Sorry? Freckles.
Freckles.
You see, I don't even know the term.
You know, he's, he's born in early 1970, and just a few months after he's born, Switzerland has a referendum, which is about limiting the population, limiting the number of migrants coming to the country, which was directly aimed at Italian migrants like him and like his family.
[singing] When he was 12, Italy won the 1982 World Cup in Spain, he and his family making homemade flags, crossing the Swiss border into Italy to join in with the celebrations.
At 20, he decided he was going to be a football lawyer, studied law at the University of Freiburg, eventually ending up in 2000, age 30, working for the European Football Association, UEFA.
He became the head of its legal department, and a protege of then UEFA president, the flamboyant French footballing legend, Michel Platini, rising rapidly through the ranks, by 2009 becoming general secretary.
Alex Horne was a senior figure at the English FA back then, went on to be its general secretary.
He worked alongside Infantino on a number of UEFA initiatives, and remembers him well.
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