He left Cremonese as a boy, and returned to Cremonese after 10 years. “I found a group of Italians who immediately made me feel like one of them.” And the results are visible: the defender has already scored more than one goal. “Yes, compared to my first one, this time I want to enjoy it”
The lights of the “Treasure Chest” are dim. The red carpet almost seems to dissolve into the darkest corners, as if it knows it has to step aside every time it comes across a jewel by Antonio Stradivari. The heart of the Cremona Violin Museum is a concentration of history, art and tradition. On an early autumn afternoon, the silence of the room is broken by the footsteps of a giant in a white shirt. With broad shoulders – very broad – and a good boy’s face, Federico Baschirotto gave himself a free afternoon to dive into the wonders of his native Cremona. As soon as he came of age, he had chosen the city of violins to divide his time between his last year of high school and the Berretti della Cremonese. The experience ended after just one season, then Fede started again with the amateurs, aware of having to work twice as hard as the others. Now, at 29, fresh from three seasons in Serie A with Lecce, he has returned to Cremonese as an absolute protagonist. He scored, even at San Siro, and chose to live a stone’s throw from the Duomo, where the luthiers’ shops parade next to each other. “As a kid I only thought about football and school, now I want to enjoy the city.” The visit to the top of Torrazzo has not yet been scheduled, but Fede already knows that even up there he would not suffer from vertigo. “I work to improve day by day and I dream of the national team”. Baschirotto wouldn’t mind the view from above at all.