Nico Paz in the front row directing the celebrations, fans in ecstasy for Fabregas: “He made us experience things we’ve never seen before”
There is a Paz crazy with joy on the parapet of the first open bus departing from Sinigaglia in the “Como si dice Champions” tour around the city celebrating the historic qualification for the big-eared cup. Diez did not take to the field on Sunday in Cremona due to the after-effects of a blow and perhaps for this reason they wanted to compensate the fifteen thousand blue and white fans who marched at walking pace through the streets of the center alongside their favourites. Starting around 8pm from the stadium, the route touched the most iconic places: via Vittorio Veneto, via Cavallotti, piazza Verdi, ending in the most evocative location, piazza Cavour overlooking the lake where an apotheosis of flags, banners, smoke bombs and fireworks awaited the heroes.
what a couple
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Drunk with joy, alongside a wild Fabregas, was also president Mirwan Suwarso, who has always exhibited the sobriety imposed by his managerial role, but which this time melted into the blue and white heat. Suwarso-Fabregas has always been a perfect combination: the Catalan’s pure instinct and spontaneity, often mistaken for cheekiness and presumption, found the point of balance in the always weighed words, in the typically oriental wisdom of the Indonesian. Not this time, no inhibitory brakes in the face of this feat that was impossible even to think about two and a half years ago, when Fabregas was chosen as head coach with the team in Serie B.
the double soul
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It is Stefano V., 59 years old, who waves the most symbolic banner of the evening. In three sentences and a name the double soul of the club is summed up. “Let’s go, Vamos, C’mon” we read next to the blow-up that portrays Fabregas in full competitive trance, double fists aimed at rejoicing for any of Como’s twenty victories in Serie A, a record in the history of the club in the top division. Immediately after Italian there is Spanish, the language most used in Mozzate’s locker room, and then English, the one spoken in the offices of Sent – the company with which the Indonesian Hartono family controls Como 1907 -, where international managers work feverishly every day on retail and merchandise, which today are as important as the sporting part, if not more. Under the photo of Fabregas, that “Cesc cumasch” is a portmanteau of the Como dialect and Catalan which explains better than anything else the link between local reality and international spirit. “I’ve been going to the stadium since I was seven years old – says Stefano with a broken voice, between emotion and an afternoon singing the blue and white euphoria – and this is the greatest joy I’ve ever felt. I’ve followed Como everywhere, Serie D, C, B, including friendlies. I haven’t missed a single one. In my heart there is Lulù Oliveira, who in 2001 dragged us to Serie A with goals. But this is a fantastic team, I’m crazy of Baturina, in my opinion one of the strongest players to have worn this shirt. Nico Paz, obviously, is out of category. I’m sure he will stay to play for another year with us, he won’t go to Inter! This year I also went to Lecce, Pisa, Bologna but I got the greatest satisfaction in Turin against Juve who we dominated. With a coach like this, Fabregas is currently the best in Europe.”
