Joe Tacopina has a square jaw, slicked-back hair and a muscular torso threatening to explode through his tightly fitted shirt. There's more than a hint of Steven Seagal about him. The 50-year-old American has a reputation as a storyteller. The first time I walk into his office, he speaks for 26 minutes before interrupting himself with the realisation I have yet to ask a question. But then Tacopina has quite the story to tell.

It's a tale of a New York lawyer who wound up in one of Europe's most iconic cities, presiding over the romantic rebirth of a football club the locals thought gone forever. A yarn that plays out against a backdrop of canals and gondolas and world-famous cathedrals. And one which ends—if Tacopina gets his way—with Venezia establishing themselves as "one of the most important teams in Italy and in Europe."