Danilo Orsi charts his rise from playing in front of 87 fans to FA Cup quarter-finals with Grimsby

By James On Mar 18, 2023

Despite growing up in north London, Grimsby Town striker Danilo Orsi likes to be by the sea.

After five years playing academy and college in Florida, he now aims to make history with the Mariners, having waited until he was 25 to get his first professional contract.

Fittingly for the nautical theme, the League Two outsiders conquered Premier League opposition at the port of Southampton this month and will reach Wembley today if they can defeat Brighton, home to the most famous pier in the English Channel.

Everything has been surreal. Absolutely crazy,” says Orsi, whose first taste of the FA Cup was playing for Cockfosters at Waltham Abbey in front of a crowd of 87.

“The Grimsby boys held our Christmas party in Newcastle on the weekend of the World Cup final and we were all in our jerseys supporting Argentina,” he says.

Grimsby Town will play Brighton at the Amex for a place in the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday

Forward Danilo Orsi (centre) earned his first professional contract after joining the club last year.

Orsi is looking forward to sharing a pitch with World Cup-winning midfielder Alexis Mac Allister.

If you had told us, we would be playing against one of the winners. [Brighton’s Alex Mc Allister] we would not have believed it. He already has the medal and Messi in his phone contacts and we are going to share the field with him.

‘Four and a half thousand of our fans went to Southampton and you couldn’t hear their supporters. It will be the same thought process in Brighton, enjoy the day.

ORSI’S GUIDE FOR YOUR PARTNERS

MAX CROCOMBE (Goalkeeper)

Max is the king of poker in the coach. He owns the table, the cards and the chips. He came in handy when we had a six and a half hour drive from Southampton after the last round.

MICHEE EFETE (Defender)

If someone hits him, he likes to mention that he’s played for Norwich with the likes of James Maddison! Another southerner like me.

LUKE WATERFALL (Defender)

He reached the quarterfinals with Lincoln a few years ago, so his standard line to the rest of the guys is ‘Oh, is this your first time?’

NIALL MAHER (Defender)

Naz, as we call him, is one of my housemates. He is the class clown, maybe not always at the right time! We will see the series of F1 Drive to Survive. We are both fans of Lewis Hamilton.

JOSH EMMANUEL (Defender)

Signed on loan from Hull in January after overcoming health problems. It shows that he has quality for having played higher up.

GAVAN HOLOHAN (Midfielder)

He scored both penalties in our victory at Southampton. We had missed one in a game before, so the crew chief said ‘Gav, take the next one.’ He is one of our most experienced players.

ALEX HUNT (Midfielder)

He’s been in and out of the team, but he’s a true technical player and at 22 he has a great future ahead of him. I think he could continue playing at a higher level.

ANTHONY DRISCOLL-GLENNON (Midfielder)

It’s me, Glenno and Naz: the three bandits or whatever nickname people give us now. She went through the academy in Liverpool, so she has the pedigree.

JOHN McATEE (front)

Fantastic last year, moved to Luton, had shoulder surgery and returned on loan. At 23 years old, the best is yet to come.

I, DANILO ORSI (Forward)

The life lessons I learned coming to the United States at 18 have definitely helped me. I am of Italian descent, my father Gianluigi was born in Parma but came to England at the age of four.

HARRY CLIFTON (Midfield)

‘One of our own’ as Grimsby fans would say. He rose through the ranks and played 200 games for the club. There’s a TV clip of a four-year-old Cliffy being interviewed at Blundell Park as a fan.

Grimsby’s journey is an astonishing one, the first fourth division team to reach the quarter-finals since Cambridge in 1990 and the club’s first appearance at this stage since 1939. Saints defender Duje Caleta-Car has a history of equally remarkable background with no realistic prospect as a teenager of being a professional footballer.

“I was 18 years old and about to start a career in IT when I got a call from a friend, James, who said that one of our old coaches was in Tampa looking for a couple of young players to go out for six weeks to play at a tournament.’ he says.

‘Mum said I should go and see that the world is bigger than Barnet. The first day, she was hot, swimming pool, girls walking on the beach. The next day we played our first game and ended up winning the tournament for the Chivas youth system. They asked us to stay for five months, with board and board paid.

After a brief return to England, where he trained with Watford under their new youth coach Harry Kewell, Orsi returned to Florida and gained a place at Eastern Florida College near Orlando, where he studied business administration and played for their soccer team.

“I spent a lot of time at the beach. It’s what everyone did,” she says with a smile. Coco Beach, Sarasota, Melbourne. The beach was five minutes from the university; white sands, palm trees, barbecues where you would dig a huge hole in the sand and build a fire. It was like what she had seen in all the movies.

‘I tried everything, beach volleyball, jet skiing. I found surfing a bit more difficult. If you had asked me when I was a schoolboy in London, are you going to spend your next few years living by the beach, I would have said, “Wow! That’s not happening.”

“But even now I live in Cleethorpes, there are no palm trees, but it is very nice. People who haven’t been don’t know. I open the window and the beach is there. You have food markets in the summer. Haddock is world famous. I was wrong once to go to a takeaway and order cod! They looked at me funny, said they only served haddock.

‘The day I signed, I took my grandfather to Papas, a well-known fish and chip shop. It was delicious. In Florida, we used to eat grouper, that was his local specialty.’

Orsi returned to England in his early 20s and made the non-league circuit until his breakout season scoring 21 goals for Maidenhead who saw him sign for League Two Harrogate in 2021.

“Signing on the dotted line at 25, a full-time contract, was the moment when all my hard work and struggles paid off,” says Orsi, who will turn 27 next month. ‘My family was even more excited than me. Their support has been incredible and my mother, Sylvia, continues to come every week to watch me play.

‘Grimsby had tried to sign me in the National League, but the manager [Paul Hurst] I understood that I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to play in the EFL. I liked the way he worked, we kept in touch, and I moved last summer.

The FA Cup magic has worked for Grimsby since the first round in November. “We’ve been underdogs in every round and we’ve beaten five teams from higher divisions, I don’t think that’s happened before,” says Orsi. ‘Our first game against Plymouth was incredible. They were flying high in League One and all four of our forwards were injured. They scored first and then we went crazy; 4-1 up at half-time and 5-1 at the end.’

After beating League One pair Cambridge and Burton and dispatching Championship Luton after a replay, Grimsby went to Southampton and earned a stunning 2-1 result.

Orsi, playing as the lone forward, was awarded the second of Gavan Holohan’s converted penalties.

The 26-year-old spent several years in the United States before playing outside the league.

Orsi scored in the FA Cup fourth round replay win over Championship side Luton

“From minute one, their defensemen complained about the way I would go up for headers or lean in. They just wanted things on their terms,” says Orsi. ‘Lyanco slapped me at one point, so I knew Caleta-Car would try something.

“We were clinging to each other, I tried to turn around and I felt a pat on the back. It was stinging like being hit with a slipper. I went down and heard the referee’s blow. I expected him to bring us together and say ‘Enough is enough’, but he gave the penalty.

Brighton stopper Lewis Dunk may be better qualified to deal with the physical threat of League Two, but Orsi expects them to play in a strong team and is looking forward to the ‘Inflatable Wars’, with local fans buying up Plastic Seagulls to compete with the thousands of shot down Harry Haddocks. North Lincolnshire.

You want to test yourself. No matter who we face, we won’t leave anything lying around,” says Orsi.