Subbuteo

The game was born in 1947 in Great Britain, precisely in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, from an idea of the ornithologist Peter Adolph (1916-1994), inspired by a board game already existing since the 1930s, the New Footy. In 1971, Subbuteo landed in Italy, thanks to the Parodi company of Genoa. The Genoese entrepreneur got to know the game at the famous Nuremberg toy fair and knowing how much football was loved in his homeland, he decided to bet on Peter Adolph’s game. He was not wrong, as the game immediately became a success in Italy as well, winning over many Subbuteo fans of every generation as early as the mid-1970s thanks to the attention to detail and the infinite possibilities of customising one’s playing experience. The game’s inventor initially gave it the name ‘the Hobby’, but it was not accepted by the patent office because the name was too generic. So Adolph’s passion for birds conditioned the choice of the final name. In fact, the name Subbuteo was derived from the Latin scientific name for the hobby hawk. Adolph associated the hawk’s speed in catching its prey with the speed with which the attacker had to score a goal.