When Teatro alla Scala first raised its curtain on 3 August 1778, football did not yet exist. In the streets of Italy, people played palla con il bracciale. Needless to say, there was little in it of formations or overhead kicks. Centuries have passed since Antonio Salieri’s L’Europa riconosciuta opened that first season. Teatro alla Scala remains one of the great symbols of Italian culture. Football, meanwhile, has spent generations showing that it can be an art form too. Season after season, match after match, through its finest performers: the players. That is why the Gran Galà del Calcio AIC 2026, organised by Wonder Project and DA, with Undici as media partner, will take place on the stage of Italy’s most prestigious theatre. The best of the 2025/26 Serie A season will be celebrated inside one of the great homes of Italian culture. Between Turandot and classical ballet, there will now be Bonazzoli’s overhead kick.
The Gran Galà del Calcio AIC is football’s night of celebration. This year, the first change is the date. The doors of Teatro alla Scala will open on the evening of Wednesday 2 September 2026. The ceremony moves away from the end of the calendar year. There is something fitting about that: as the curtain rises on the theatre, a new Serie A season is beginning too. The other change comes with Serie A itself. This year, Lega Serie A is a partner of the event, adding the league to an occasion that has become a fixture in the Italian football calendar. The whole system will be there. Federica Masolin and Fabio Caressa will host the evening. The night of Italian football’s stars will also be broadcast live on Sky Sport from 7pm and free-to-air on TV8 from 9.20pm. Football is a shared inheritance. Especially in Italy.
The anticipation around the Gran Galà del Calcio AIC’s first night at Teatro alla Scala is already palpable. This year, more than ever, the ambition is to make it something bigger. That was the mood at the event’s presentation press conference.
“It is a world that we build every year,” said AIC President Umberto Calcagno. “It lives a little in the old-fashioned way. The great value of this award comes from the pitch itself. We honour the most beautiful part of our show. Today, our environment does little to highlight everything that happens behind the scenes. The younger generations are very closely managed, they live within their training centres. Very often, though, we fail to convey just how much care they put in, and how different their level of professionalism is from that of players of previous generations. So we want to highlight that aspect too, alongside the fact that they are the best.” There was no shortage of spectacle on the pitch last season. Look at the goals selected by Undici for “Vota il gol”, the award for the most spectacular goal of 2025/26. Piotr Zieliński against Verona for Inter. Francisco Conceição for Juventus against Roma. Federico Bonazzoli for Milan against Cremonese. Nico Paz for Como against Genoa. Andrea Pinamonti for Sassuolo against Lecce. Santiago Castro for Bologna against Verona. Semih Kılıçsoy for Torino against Cagliari. Adrien Rabiot for Milan against Torino. Donyell Malen for Roma against Cagliari. Scott McTominay for Napoli against Inter. Not a bad list.
The voting is part of what makes the award special. Players, together with coaches and other figures from the game, choose the best among their peers. The ones they believe deserve to be recognised. No other judges. The pitch has the final say, through the people who live the game every day. “It is a special award because it comes from the votes of those who live our sport every day,” said AIC General Director Gianni Grazioli. “Players judging their peers make the award authentic and celebrate merit.” Demetrio Albertini knows that world better than most. Today President and Founder of DA, he spent a lifetime in it. Every year he helps shape this celebration of football. This time, the setting makes it different. “Football teaches you that the next match starts again at 0-0,” Albertini said. “That a title you have won has to be defended against everyone: you always have to start again. It is good to look back at the moments of last season. Winning an award voted for by your peers is the greatest recognition a footballer can receive, after team trophies.”
The leading figures of the league were also at the presentation. Ezio Simonelli, President of Lega Serie A, spoke about what needs to be done to help Serie A grow. “We are selling a league that is the most exciting among the various top leagues. This year we have so many promising young players and we are sure they will bring more people closer to our competition. How do we make it more attractive? A full, beautiful stadium certainly makes the product more appealing. There is a huge appetite for football among Italian fans, even though we face too many restrictions from public authorities. We would like to fill the sections that are still empty. Obviously, we will not build the stadiums tomorrow morning. We need to work on keeping our talent. Serie A is currently a transit league: as soon as a young player with talent emerges, there are people looking to take him away. These are all areas we are working on.” Luigi De Siervo, CEO of Lega Serie A, followed. “We believe strongly in our relationship with AIC. The Gran Galà del Calcio AIC is an absolute point of excellence. We wanted to bring the attention of some partners to it. And choosing Teatro alla Scala is an invitation to keep doing things well, and to do them in an even better setting. With such a crowded calendar, it was important to be ready and find a space in which to honour the athletes who entertained us last year.” A night like this also needs a team behind it. Haier is part of it as Title Sponsor.
“For us, the Gran Galà del Calcio AIC is the flagship, a celebration of performance and team spirit, the values that define Haier,” said Emiliano Garofalo, Country Manager of Haier Italia. There will be some of the moments that make a football night linger. Gianluca Cannizzo, CEO and Founder of Wonder Project, offered a glimpse of what is in store. “It will be an emotional event: football inside the centre of national culture is already a spectacle. There will be some moving moments: we will remember Franco Baresi together with the legends, and there will be a reunion of the 2006 World Cup winners.”
The men’s shortlists were also unveiled at the press conference. Marco Carnesecchi, Mike Maignan and Mile Svilar are the three contenders for Best Goalkeeper. Manuel Akanji, Alessandro Bastoni, Gleison Bremer, Federico Dimarco, Denzel Dumfries, Mario Gila, Marco Palestra, Evan Ndicka, Oumar Solet and Wesley França make up the defensive shortlist. In midfield: Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Manu Koné, Scott McTominay, Luka Modrić, Adrien Rabiot and Piotr Zieliński. Up front: Rafael Leão, Lautaro Martínez, Donyell Malen, Nico Paz, Marcus Thuram and Kenan Yıldız. One of Cristian Chivu, Cesc Fàbregas and Gian Piero Gasperini will be named Coach of the Year. Como, Inter and Roma are in contention for Club of the Year. Andrea Colombo, Daniele Doveri and Maurizio Mariani are the shortlisted referees. Awards will also go to the best young players in Serie B and Serie A.
Now the lights of Teatro alla Scala await. Think about it: Pinamonti’s touch against Lecce will find its way behind the curtain of one of the most extraordinary theatres in the world. A gesture from a football match, on a very different stage. For the Gran Galà del Calcio AIC, 2026 is a special year. It marks the beginning of something new. The best of Italian football, gathered for one night inside one of the country’s great cultural spaces. The football will be there. So will the theatre.