Matt Rizzetta is a successful Italian American businessman best known as the founder and chairman of North Sixth Group. His investments include the Italian soccer club Campobasso and Brooklyn FC. At Appetito, we’ve delved a lot into Italy's passion for soccer with our weekly Serie A column, but there are also a number of lower tier divisions that attract as much excitement, like Serie C – the third-tier league where Campobasso currently sits. And while the club now boasts a triumphant tale in the world of sports, it was far from attractive when North Sixth Group took the plunge to buy it – something that didn’t intimidate Rizzetta, but rather motivated him. With family values and his Italian heritage at the core of his personal and professional ethos, I was eager to chat with Rizzetta and share his remarkable story with Appetito’s readers.
From Sunday Dinner to Center Field: Matt’s Recipe for Success
Rizzetta readily acknowledges that his Italian heritage represents more than his cultural background; it’s the common thread that weaves through his personal and business endeavors. And with family being the fulcrum of Italian culture, this businessman shares that family is undoubtedly a crucial component of his journey. He credits the Sunday ritual of family dinner as the birthplace for many of his projects and investments, describing them as an environment of togetherness, loyalty, and having each other’s backs – a sentiment often echoed by the Italian diaspora.
In addition to the conviviality of sharing a meal with his nearest and dearest, Rizzetta fondly reminisces about his childhood and how it served as the catalyst that sparked his passion for Italian soccer. He vividly describes the atmosphere of his Sunday mornings, sitting on his grandfather’s lap to watch Serie A soccer as the house was perfumed with the smell of espresso brewing as his grandmother prepared breakfast. Fast forward to the present, Rizzetta tells me, “This investment in Italian football [...] with Campobasso has really enabled me to [...] relive my childhood and there's not many investments that enable you to do that.” He goes on to share that this business venture has brought him closer to his grandfather on a spiritual level, despite him being gone for over 20 years.
Championing the Underdog: A Mindset Rooted in Heritage
Having built a reputation in the sports world as a champion of underdog projects, Rizzetta is driven by a philosophy that stems from his appreciation for those who have strived against the odds to succeed. During our chat, it became clear that he draws inspiration from his own roots, referencing the fact that his grandparents, like most Italian-American immigrants, were underdogs with little to no knowledge of the English language. Rizzetta tells me, “I always had a soft spot for underdog projects”, a theme that rings true even in his own business journey, which he navigated without any handouts or favors.
North Sixth Group continues to expand its network of underdog investment projects, and among these is one that sent shockwaves in the world of Italian football. When they made the move to buy Campobasso FC, the team found itself sitting in Italy’s fifth-tier soccer division. Few had the courage to take on a challenge of this magnitude, with Rizzetta explaining, “When we bought the club, there was never a foreign ownership group that ever bought a fifth-tier club in Italy [...] No one ever had the courage to go down that low in the pyramid.”
Since taking ownership of the club, Campobasso has won two championships, moving them up in the ranks of Italian soccer, so that they now compete in Serie C. It’s certainly a stark cry from where they were. Rizzetta is also proud of the impact that the investment has had beyond the pitch, telling me that it has fostered a sense of pride for the often-overlooked region of Molise, which has been subject to the old Italian adage, Molise non esiste (Molise doesn’t exist).
And while Rizzetta is passionate about his Italian heritage, he shares equal sentiment for being born and raised a New Yorker; something that led him to invest in the Brooklyn FC women’s soccer team. Here too, his guiding principle of championing underdog projects played a big role in his decision to invest in bringing professional women’s soccer to an inner city setting like Brooklyn. Rizzetta says that he was motivated to expand the sport’s footprint beyond affluent, suburban communities and into New York’s five boroughs. He chose Brooklyn largely because of its reputation, telling me, “When you think about Brooklyn, you think about underdogs, you think about people who hustle and who come to Brooklyn with big dreams and they work hard and they achieve those dreams.” He went on to describe the opportunity as, “a beautiful vision and something that [we] couldn’t pass up.”
The Raw Passion of Serie C Soccer
The passion surrounding Serie C boasts a lively buzz that is fueled by passionate players and fans. Rizzetta attributes this excitement to the fact that the league encourages clubs to play young players, which he describes as the stars of tomorrow. He points out, “They're falling in love with the idea of becoming Serie A players or Serie B players. So, I think there's really an authenticity and a [genuineness] to it.”
But he also believes that there are factors off the pitch that contribute to the league’s electric energy. He says that the advent of content creation and storytelling has given fans exclusive access to projects from their onset. The end result is a loyal fan base, both locally and abroad, with the Campobasso project even garnering support from the Molisani community in North America. In fact, when Rizzetta and I spoke on the phone, he was in transit bound for Montréal, Canada (a testament to his dedicated work ethic!) to meet with the city’s Molisani for a promotional event.
Food & Football Legends
Given our love of food at Appetito, I was compelled to discover Matt Rizzetta’s vision of the perfect meal. He considers pizza his weakness, telling me, “The pizza is amazing both in the United States and Italy,” and that he’s been able to enjoy his fair share of it in both countries. But Rizzetta also admits to having a sweet tooth, especially for gelato, making it a daily ritual to visit the gelateria whenever he’s in Italy. These two indulgences paired with the company of family and friends – while talking about soccer – makes for a winning combination.
As the interview came to an end, like all soccer fans, I had one burning question: if Rizzetta could share a meal with one soccer legend, who would it be? He briefly mentioned 1982 World Cup champion Paolo Rossi – coincidentally the year Rizzetta was born – but ultimately chose Fabio Cannavaro, the Azzurri captain from Italy’s 2006 World Cup victory. Interestingly, the two are somewhat acquainted, with Rizzetta sharing, “We've exchanged several phone calls and messages and he's a great guy. He's offered his help to our project [referring to Campobasso], so I'd love to have an opportunity to sit down with him.” And for those wondering what the two would talk about, Rizzetta revealed a keenness to get Cannavaro’s thoughts on how to take Campobasso from Serie C to Serie A – a milestone that most agree is within Rizzetta’s reach. However, few would deny that the synergistic impact of these two forces joining together would be monumental.
Final Thoughts
What moves Matt Rizzetta and North Sixth Group will make next remain unknown, but one thing is for certain: this Italian American mogul will continue to make waves in the world of soccer, staying true to his roots and championing underdog projects.
