This pitch invader during the Portugal-Uruguay match was holding a rainbow flag.
The front of his shirt read ‘Save Ukraine’ and the back read ‘Respect For Iranian Women’.
According to information, In March 2022 he helped evacuate Ukrainian women and children at the Polish border.
Mario Ferri might be a bit of an unknown figure outside of the Italian public scene. Ferri, who’s commonly known as “Il Falco” (The Falcon) by those close to him, earned some notoriety a few years back not for being a footballer, but for his lighthearted antics as a globe-trotting pitch invader. He would travel from Italian to European and South American venues — notably the World Cup — and storm onto the field while wearing a Superman shirt. Once on the field, he would engage with players and rile up the fans. He would later become friends with some of the players on the same pitch he invaded.
But this is not a story about an Italian pitch invader-turned professional soccer player who’s looking to cause more trouble. This is actually a story about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and how this person dropped everything on a dime to travel to the border of Poland and help the Ukrainian refugees escape their homeland.
“As we speak, I’m in Poland, in a city called Medyka, close to the border with Ukraine,” Ferri told CBS Sports. “Yesterday we brought 60 women to this side with a bus …”
Ferri is currently under contract with United Sports Club in Kolkata, a second-division side out of India. At the beginning of February, the 35-year-old footballer came back from India after the league decided to stop the competition until June after COVID-19 cases rapidly increased in the region.
Ferri spent years with the goal of invading several venues around the world. Now he has another goal: He wants to be the first soccer player to ever play professionally in all five continents once he leaves the Polish-Ukrainian border. With Europe, Africa and Asia already crossed off his list, he’s targeting a move next year to the United States and to Australia. “In one year, I’ll make it,” a convinced Ferri said.
Ferri is taking this new and unexpected role very seriously: “I do it on my own. I pay for everything and I want nothing back. I almost had a fight the other day because I saw a man asking money for doing what I do. It’s unacceptable, people are desperate here and there are few that want to make a business out of it.
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