Falconer For Italian Soccer Team Fired For Reason You'll Never Guess

I can think of a ton of ways one could lose their job as the falconer for an Italian Serie A soccer club. 

If you teach your bird to steal people's wallets. Fired.

If you take your bird with you to the bar to impress women. Fired.

If you sell your bird to cover a gambling debt. Fired.

But if you gave me a million guesses as to how the Falconer for Italian club Lazio got fired, I'd never be able to get it and neither would you… unless your guess was "Did he post a photo of his prosthetic penis on the internet?"

In that case, you'd be right.

Juan Bernabé is a Spanish falconer who until recently served as the falconer for Rome-based club Lazio where he handled their live eagle mascot (I guess you're still a falconer even if you work with an eagle, who knew?)

Now-former Lazio falconer Juan Bernabe and team mascot Olimpia, during the Serie A football match between SS Lazio and Genoa CFC. (Photo by Andrea Staccioli/Insidefoto/LightRocket via Getty Images)

But the trouble began, according to the Associated Press, when Bernabé decided to share some photos of his brand new penile implant to his private social media account.

I mean, when you're proud of something, you want to show it off; I get it.

Bernabé also went on a controversial Italian radio show where he talked about his implant, which he got for non-medical reasons.

The club didn't appreciate this and announced that Bernabé — who was previously suspended in 2021 for performing a fascist salute after a match, so he may have been on borrowed time already — was no longer with the club, effective immediately.

"The club realizes — and shares — the pain that the fans will feel at the loss of the eagle in the next home games, but believes that it is not possible to be associated … with a person who, by his own initiative, has made the continuation of the relationship unacceptable," the club said.

I'm sure they'll have that prized eagle back on the sidelines as soon as possible, seeing as falconers are a dime a dozen.

It's just going to be weird that they'll have to tell the next guy, "If you decide to get a penile implant, we'd prefer you keep that on the down-low…"