Sport as a symbol of restart and the desire to return to life with renewed enthusiasm. This is the key to the reading of "Ready, steady, play", the special issue of Icon, the men's fashion and lifestyle brand of the Mondadori Group.
This new issue of the magazine, on newsstands from Saturday 19 June, aims to tell the world of sport through the voices of its protagonists, accompanying the reader to what will be the summer competitions.
The special issue is a hymn to vitality, positivity and the rediscovery of the joy of living together with others, embracing a new lifestyle that revolves around sport and the worlds that surround it: from fashion and sportswear, celebrated in conjunction with the "start of the Milan Fashion Week, to wellness and new technologies.
The issue will have four different covers dedicated to the protagonists of the summer sporting events, from the European football championships to the Olympic Games, to the athletes of emerging disciplines, to offer readers a different vision of sport and the rebirth of which it is the spokesperson.
"A new season opens up for everyone, we hope so and our way of experiencing sport could really become the symbol of a restart at the gates and an agent of social change", declared the director of the magazine Andrea Tenerani.
The star of one of the four special covers and of an exclusive interview made in partnership with The Daily Telegraph by leading sports journalist Jason Burt is the rising star of European and world football, Erling Haaland. The Norwegian striker tells the magazine with an open heart, confiding in his magnificent obsession with a persuasive name: Champions League. to debut by going straight to the mark: «I followed the games from a very young age: I have no memories in which the Champions League was not present. There were great teams with legendary players who scored a lot of goals. It became my dream to play in the Champions League and score a lot of goals. It's the tournament where the best play: that's their place. " win it: "It's my big dream."
To open the special issue, the exclusive conversation between the director of Icon, Andrea Tenerani, and what is probably considered one of the most prominent prosecutors in today's football, Mino Raiola, who when asked what are the values behind sport he replied: «The inclusiveness, equality, the need to leave everyone as equals and to learn to be together regardless of where everyone comes from: football is the mirror of life.These values that are indispensable in football are also indispensable in society and in the daily life of all of us ». A "punctual and precise interview in which there is no lack of a moment of reflection on the judgment on his work in recent years:" I let myself be judged by the players and my family, if they are happy they are happy. And then you know what they say. in these cases: choose a job you love and you won't have to work a single day in your life ».
Another Icon cover could only be dedicated to the Azzurri engaged in the Euro 2020 competition in recent weeks. Before the start of the tournament, the magazine met the Italian national football team led by Roberto Mancini in Coverciano, who posed for a exclusive service with the uniforms designed for them by Giorgio Armani for Emporio Armani.
Another cover reserved for Sean O "Malley, known as Suga, the most promising fighter of the new generation of fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), portrayed exclusively by the extraordinary American photographer Bruce Weber, who also continues his collaboration with Icon in this special issue. , signing a service of over 20 pages in which he immortalizes a selection of rising athletes.
Icon does not fail to give space to the rising stars of Italian sport and to the disciplines that will make their debut at the Tokyo Olympics for the first time. The magazine has chosen as a symbol of this generation of young protagonists, called to dictate new rules in their respective competitive disciplines, Ludovico Fossali, sport climbing champion, portrayed by photographer Giampaolo Sgura and also protagonist of one of the four covers of the special issue of Icon.
A number that does not stop here but welcomes the reflections of many other talents and characters: from Milena Bertolini, Technical Commissioner of the Italian women's national team who tells what is happening today in women's football, to Donyell Malen, star of PSV Eindhoven, photographed for a fashion shooting. And then the basketball with the basketball player P.J.Tucker, one of the protagonists of the season in the NBA.
The sport issue will not only live through the pages of the print magazine but will also be developed on Instagram and on the Icon website, recently completely redesigned and from where the brand will continue to accompany Italians throughout the summer, collecting sport as a symbol of rebirth with interviews, exclusive content and updates on competitions and athletes.
Icon confirms its leadership in the men's lifestyle segment, with a number of advertising pages growing in the first six months of the year by 22% compared to the same period of 2020, and an overall print and digital turnover, up by 20%.
