On July 18 he would have turned eighty. If he were alive he would still be divided between his great loves: the family and the Nerazzurri. He was an example more than a symbol. Memory of a man who remains in the hearts of his people
Fast, light. Innovator, technician. Serious, honest. Competent, Inter. Giacinto Facchetti would turn 80 on 18 July and who knows what his life would have been like in his third age, torn between his two great loves: family and Inter. He was and will always be the eternal number 3 of the Nerazzurri, the first full-back who attacked and scored goals with incredible ease. The full-back who did not fouls and who in over 600 games was sent off only once. An episode so anomalous that the audience, his audience, stood up to accompany his run towards the tunnel with applause. In that applause there was adhesion rather than cheering: the backbone on which the concept of people is formed. Who cannot help but choose a leader to whom to entrust dreams and hopes. A figure who represents you and to be proud of. There are different captains: the champions too strong not to be representative, the silent leaders who just need an example to be respected. Facchetti enjoyed a transversal, universal love. Giacinto was an example and not a symbol, because symbols divide and only positive models can be born from examples. The personality that came out of his overwhelming rides has never prevailed over that shyness behind which the football player Giacinto hid in his early Nerazzurri years.