A 16-year-old Swedish soccer player, from an immigrant family of Iranian origin, Mustafa Moradi from Lerum (played by Poyan Karimi), is yearning for love, but he is just too "nerdy" and lacks self-confidence to develop meaningful relationships and is downright intimidated by the girls who just want to have him as a "friend" but not as a lover.

Encouraged by his initial success, he tries to conceal his Iranian identity and develop an Italian persona convinced this is his chance with the girls attending the Cup games.

Sooner than he knows, he starts dating Linnea (played by Chanelle Lindell), a young but more mature Swedish woman, who longs for a genuine guy with sincerity and courage who falls for "Massimo".

Disenchanted with her father (played by Jimmy Lindström) she also plans on quitting Sweden by escaping with "Massimo" to Italy at the end of the tournament as the relationship between the two blossoms into a very serious love affair.

[citation needed] In 2009, director Mani Maserrat Agah was nominated to "New Voices/New Visions Grand Jury Prize" for Ciao Bella during the Palm Springs International Film Festival.