Italys Riccardo Montolivo wears German flag on his shoe during semifinal against Germany

If you happened to spot the little German flag emblem on Italian midfielder Riccardo Montolivo's boot during Italy's Euro 2012 semifinal against Germany, rest assured that it isn't a brazen signal of another Italian match-fixing scandal. In fact, the 27-year-old Fiorentina man has worn the German emblem on one boot (with the Italian flag on the other) throughout the tournament and he does it as a tribute to his German mother and Italian father.

Though he was born in northern Italy, his mother's side of the family are all from Germany. Montolivo, who holds German citizenship, grew up speaking German at home, and is still fluent in the language. And all this leads to a member of the Italian team wearing one German boot (well,technicallythey're both German since he wears adidas).