Giampaolo Pazzini at one point played soccer on a team.
Association football , more commonly known as football or soccer , is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball . Giampaolo Pazzini ( [ dʒamˈpaolo patˈtsini ] ; born 2 August 1984 in Pescia ) , nicknamed Il Pazzo ( The Madman ) by his fans , is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Hellas Verona and formerly for the Italian national team , representing his nation at the 2010 FIFA World Cup .