صاحب‌خبر - Guardian - Behind the mask is a boy. Just before Christmas 2016, Paulo Dybala missed Juventus’s last penalty in the Italian Super Cup final against Milan. It was still on his mind days later when, watching Gladiator, he had an idea. From that moment, he has celebrated every goal by putting his hand across his face, thumb and index finger extended to imitate a mask. It has been seen often – there have been 64 goals since, starting with a penalty in the next match – instantly identified as his. It is also, he says, “not just a celebration but a message”. Juventus’s No 10 speaks softly; he is thoughtful and the mask is worn lightly but listening it becomes apparent it goes beyond celebration to become more meaningful, if subconsciously. He says it was inspired by the penalty and the film, that he “didn’t really think about” it as protection or some emotional shield. But in the way he explains it – in everything he says the morning after its latest outing – it is revealed as deeper. “A lot of the time, you have difficult moments and you have to go out there and fight anyway: not just in football, in life,” he says. “Bad things happen, to me or anyone, difficult times in life, but you have to keep going: put the mask on like gladiators do, and fight. Every battle. That was the idea I tried to transmit. People liked it, understood it. And that’s pleasing because the messages you send aren’t always interpreted the way you’d like.” Which seems a good place to start any article, a rider usefully attached to every interview. Another good place might be Laguna Larga, population 7,437: Paulo’s Town, as a billboard there proudly declares over a picture of him “wearing” the mask. Or Poland, perhaps. After all, although Dybala has never been to Krasniow, he will because, as he puts it, “I’d like to see where it all began”. Krasniow is a village of 49 inhabitants where Dybala’s paternal grandfather Boleslaw lived. During the second world war he was sent to a Nazi labour camp. Afterwards, there was little left and he departed for Argentina, sleeping in cornfields. He had almost died before someone found him. Boleslaw did not talk about the past much. Dybala wants to know more. “I’d like to go, although there’s no family left,” he says. “It’s a tiny place, eight or nine houses. Some Polish journalists put me in touch with my grandfather’s daughter but she passed away. There are cousins in Canada and we’ve spoken but not met. I want to. I tried to get a Polish passport but we couldn’t find some of my grandfather’s documents and we got Italian passports from my mother’s side instead. One day, I will. I feel maybe more Polish than Italian. Personality-wise, my dad was more Polish; my middle brother, exactly the same. All of us, a bit. Maybe a bit colder, Polish blood. Italians tend to be more emotional.”∎​