How Italy’s Manuela Giugliano captured gay hearts across Brazil
2019’s edition of the Women’s World Cup has been the most popular yet, attracting record viewing figures and far outshining the men’s Cricket World Cup in the UK. There have been many stars of the competition so far, such as Alex Morgan for her incredible five goals against Thailand; Megan Rapinoe, who has refused to meet with Trump at the White House should the USA win the competition; and Marta, who delivered an inspiring speech after Brazil were eliminated in the second round. However, for one corner of the internet at least, the real heroine of the tournament is Manuela Giugliano.
The Italian midfielder achieved online fame after her country’s group-stage game against Brazil, in which she winked at the camera during the national anthem. This wasn’t her first time doing so during the tournament — that was in the previous game against Jamaica — but it was thanks to the team she was playing against that a powerful force was unleashed onto an unsuspecting Twitter: Brazilian gays.
Shortly after the incident, a search for her name on social media revealed a flood of comments, almost entirely from young Brazilian women who had been seduced by Manu’s simple flirtation.
Typical comments included (in Portuguese): “I’m officially declaring that I am in love with Manuela Giugliano”, “Manuela Giugliano, from the Italian team, do you want my heart? I’m giving it to you” and “my god manuela giugliano’s wink god in heaven i went weak”. One video of the famous wink has received almost 8,000 likes on Twitter, with the top reply reading, “i looked at my mum and my siblings then and tried to act in the most hetero way possible”.
If Giugliano was unaware of the passion she had stirred in lesbian and bisexual hearts across Brazil, she had only to look at her Instagram. A recent picture of her drinking from a bottle of water has received over 600 comments, mostly in Portuguese: “How I’d like to be that bottle” says one, another, “How to become a bottle Google search”. One commenter has chosen to express her attraction in a more mythological way: “If I sit on this woman, anyone who can pull me off her will be declared the new King Arthur”.
In anticipation of Italy’s first game of the knockout stages, against China, Manuela uploaded a picture of herself trying to win the ball from Marta, with the Brazilian player’s hand on her chest in an attempt to keep her away. Marta’s compatriots were particularly fond of this picture it seems, with one common theme: “Marta doing what I wish I could do”, “My dream is to take Marta’s place in this photo”, “I don’t know if I’m more jealous of Manuela or Marta, help”. One of the players’ less horny fans simply called them, “Two queens”.
Incidentally, all these crushes may not be entirely in vain. Manuela does play for our team, and I’m not talking about AC Milan here: although her exact sexuality is unclear, she’s currently dating 37-year-old Futsal player Ambra Capotosto. On her Instagram, Giugliano writes of Capotosto: “I chose you. And I will choose you again and again and again. Without hesitation, without doubts, in a heartbeat. I will continue to choose you!”
Even if Manuela and her teammates exit from the World Cup after Saturday’s game against the Netherlands, at least she will have the consolation of knowing that she’s won a whole host of new fans across the Atlantic. In fact, her Instagram now has over 100,000 followers: before the game against Brazil it was barely a quarter of that number. And if she treats us to another wink on Saturday, we can expect LBT football fans from Brasilia to Belém to fall in love with her even further.
