In June 1982, before the Spanish tournament, a Roman Nerazzurri supporter provoked the coach, guilty of not having called him up for the expedition. He reacted with a slap, then apologized
Becca’s final dribble. Suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage in January 2025 and then hospitalized in a specialized facility, he passed away yesterday, on the threshold of turning 70, which he would have turned on May 12th. Evaristo Beccalossi stood out for his former number 10 class, an extinct figure, and for his unusual first name. “I’m Evaristo, sorry if I insist”: it seems clear that Beppe Viola said this in a report for Sporting Sunday. According to some, Beccalossi himself uttered the phrase to Enrico Albertosi, AC Milan’s goalkeeper, after the 2-0 in the derby in autumn 1979, with a brace from Becca, a match that launched Inter towards the 1980 Scudetto. According to others, Beppe Viola coined the slogan to sponsor Beccalossi’s call-up to the 1982 World Cup, but Enzo Bearzot didn’t want to hear of it, he deemed it too individualistic and that curly-haired and unpredictable number 10 is not very functional for his national team.
Beccalossi’s last dribble
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We don’t know which version is correct, but the rhyme is perfect, it gives the idea of what Beccalossi had been, an insistent attacking midfielder in dribbling and assisting. A 10 all creativity and recklessness, with little desire to train, the antithesis of certain bionic “ten” in circulation today, built between the field, schemes, algorithms. Becca came from his childhood in Italy during the economic boom. He had learned to dribble in the oratory of San Domenico Savio in Brescia, he played for fun, he smoked without guilt, even in the locker room. He made the tunnels in the years when this mocking technical gesture could cost you an ankle, because the defender, humiliated by the ball passing between his legs, chased the dribbler to give him a kick. It happened in Catanzaro, with sixteen-year-old Beccalossi, making his debut for Brescia: “I made a tunnel to Luigi Maldera (terrible defender of the homonymous lineage, ed.). He took it badly. “Don’t try it again – he told me -, otherwise I’ll kick you all the way to Soverato””. Gianni Brera called him “Dribblossi” and wrote: “Beccalossi sees motorways where others see country lanes”.
the championship
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Inter bought him in 1978 from Brescia, where he was coached by Mauro Bicicli, a former player from the Grande Inter, a sign. The year before, again from Brescia, Inter had signed Alessandro Altobelli, known as Spillo due to his wiry physique. Together they had wreaked havoc in Brescia, perfect for each other, the 10 creative and the 9 strong in the head and opportunistic. It’s still Ivanhoe Fraizzoli’s Inter, it’s still human football. Evaristo arouses curiosity, due to his unusual name, inherited from one of his grandparents, and his sparkling and unnatural left foot, according to the interested party. Born right-footed, he honed his left foot with block shots until it became his reference foot. Perhaps it had something to do with falling in love, as a child, with Omar Sivori, the left-footed player of the great Juventus team between the fifties and sixties, but beware of calling him a Juventus player, Beccalossi professes to be an Inter fan. It is his father who supports Juventus and who initiates him into the cult of Sivori. Beccalossi immediately captured the hearts of the fans, even though Juve won the ’78 scudetto and Milan won the ’79 scudetto. Juve, Milan and then Inter, in 1980, with Becca’s double in the derby, 2-0, two easy goals for someone like him, two goals that will earn him the eternal glory of the Inter world, and the 4-0 against Juve shortly after: “There’s a photo of me surrounded by four Juventus players, me with the ball at my feet. You know what I told them in those moments: ‘Take it, if you can'”. Beccalossi ganassa and bauscia: perfection for the Milanese Inter fans.
in the myth
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The cult episode, however, is another. Inter Slovan in Bratislava, September 1982, Cup Winners’ Cup. Beccalossi misses two penalties, one after the other. Paolo Rossi, the comedian, will write a monologue on it, we report an excerpt: “It’s easy to understand the difficulty of taking a penalty. He (Beccalossi, ed.) looked the whole stadium in the eyes and said: “I’ll take it…” And I thought, with the whole stadium: “These are the real men”. He took the ball and put it on the penalty spot. He did it with the confidence of the man who would never, ever make a mistake. And he made a mistake. And I I thought: “For me he remains a man”. But, when five minutes later, they gave a penalty back to Inter, for those who know about football, but at this point also for those who don’t know about it, it is easy to understand the difficulty, for a player who has just missed a penalty, to take on the responsibility of taking it again. He looked the whole stadium in the eyes. And the whole stadium said: “No! Putt… Eva!”. He put the ball on the spot with the certainty of a man who wouldn’t miss again. And he missed again! And I thought: “For me he’s always a man. A bit of a loser, but still a man.” Enrico Ruggeri dedicated a song to Beccalossi, “Il fantasista”: “I am the one to watch / when I want to play / I am a slave to the artist in me / Give me the ball, don’t talk / then run to hug me / I am the last selfish / because I am a playmaker / I do what you would like to do”.
the slap
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June 1982, Italy gathers at the Villa Pamphili hotel before leaving for the World Cup in Spain. These are days of protest. The national team plays badly and everyone blames Enzo Bearzot, the coach guilty of not having called up Roberto Pruzzo, Roma’s center forward, and Evaristo Beccalossi of Inter. The Nerazzurri club issued a statement to express its support for the player. On June 3, at the entrance to Villa Pamphili, a twenty-year-old girl, AC, Roman, but an Inter fan, a member of the Boys, insults Bearzot: “Fool, ape, bastard”. Bearzot reacts with a slap, then apologizes, invites the young woman into the hotel lobby, explains to her that he didn’t call Beccalossi because the player wouldn’t fit in with the group. In turn the girl asks Bearzot for forgiveness and appears contrite. Italy wins the World Cup, AC will invite Bearzot to its wedding. Beccalossi will remain with zero appearances in the National A team, too irregular and anarchic for the blue shirt: “I have always done what I wanted and I feel good like that”.
the second life
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Away from Inter in 1984, overshadowed by Hansi Muller, Becca left for a tour of the peninsula: Samp, Monza, a return of flame and flames at Brescia, Barletta in Serie B and Pordenone in the Interregional, complete with relegation. In 1990-91 the last season: at Breno, Brescia, in the Interregional. A melancholy and sweet career ending for a number 10 that the new football considered a heretic, in the wake of Arrigo Sacchi’s Copernican revolution. Becca’s second life follows, between TV as a brilliant commentator and as a commercial advertising salesman. Perhaps not everyone knows that Beccalossi worked for Sony as an agent and that, in a local Milanese TV station, at a certain point he managed a structure with twelve people dedicated to procuring commercials. A pleasure-seeker hungry for life and dribbling, who was liked by Franco Califano, an Inter singer. When the Caliph performed in Lombardy, once the concerts were over he met Beccalossi at night, in the motorway service station near Dalmine, on the Milan-Bergamo road: “All the bars in the area closed, the only one open was that one”. They stayed up until dawn talking about women and football, watching the cars go by. The Becca and the Caliph: a film.
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