The man who passed away today was a true innovator: he was the first to bring out a brand with the sponsor on the Perugia shirts “Ponte Sportswear”, sportswear. But it was a pasta factory…
Gabriele Brustenghi is the man who anticipated the future. The football sponsorships, the popularity of the New York marathon, the fitness “fad”, it all started from his brilliant mind. And from Perugia, where Brustenghi was born on 31 July 1940. The first revolution dates back to the end of the Seventies, when Umbria was the epicenter of a sporting miracle – the Grifo was the first undefeated team in the history of Serie A – and of entrepreneurial fervor. Brustenghi is the marketing director of Ellesse, a sportswear brand founded by Leonardo Servadio to which many excellent athletes are and will be linked (Guillermo Vilas, Marc Girardelli, Gianni Poli, Boris Becker who won Wimbledon in 1985 dressed in Ellesse). The manager is also a consultant to Franco D’Attoma, president of Perugia, Servadio’s brother-in-law. On the last page of the photographic book celebrating the Perugia of Miracles, Brustenghi and D’Attoma are portrayed sitting just outside the tunnel leading from the changing rooms of the Curi stadium. The conversation that actually happened somewhere is imagined. “Imagine if Paolo Rossi entered the pitch from that underpass wearing the Perugia shirt,” says D’Attoma. “It can be done,” replies Brustenghi, his eyes already shining as he studies how to carry out the shot. At that time, Paolo Rossi was already the strongest center forward in Serie A. To pay Paolo Rossi’s “rent” to Vicenza, around 700 million, too much for Grifo’s coffers, the lawyer was about to revolutionize football. He gets sponsored. Brustenghi finds an agreement with Pasta Ponte, a pasta factory with a turnover of 20 billion lire: 400 million.
