Franco Zuccalà, historic face of Rai, has died

Franco Zuccalà passed away during the night at the age of 83. Originally from Catania, with a long career in Rai, he had also worked in the Roman editorial office of the Gazzetta dello Sport, as well as Il Giornale and Tuttosport, since 2000 he was a columnist for the Italpress news agency.

Born on 22 September 1940, he had wandered for over 45 years in the composite universe of the media: newspapers, radio and television: first at Telestar and Antenna Sicilia with Pippo Baudo and at Odeon. But he achieved notoriety with Rai with reports as a correspondent for “La Domenica Sportiva”, “Novantesimo Minuto”, “Il Processo del Monday” and Tg1. Furthermore, for eleven years he presented a bi-weekly program (“Themes of football”) for the Rai Corporation of New York, which was followed throughout the American continent. He then collaborated with Italian Swiss Television and Montecarlo Sat. Olympics, World Cup, European Championships, African Cup: since 1958 he has covered all the most important sporting events. He was also awarded an “Honoris Causa” degree in “Telecommunication Science” from Columbia University in New York; he has won important journalistic awards such as the “Boccali”, the “Brera”.

blue shirt

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In 2014, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and coach Cesare Prandelli gave him the number 50 blue shirt for his half-century with the national team. He was also awarded the “Guirlande d’honneur” of the Federation Internationale Cinema Television Sportifs for his long career.

In many years of journalism he has interviewed figures of the stature of Nelson Mandela, Henry Kissinger, Gianni Agnelli, Sophia Loren as well as the greatest football champions, from Pelè to Maradona, from Cruijff to Beckenbauer. He wrote “Il Re di Broccolino”, “Champions for ever”, “Brividi Mondiali” and collaborated in the creation of numerous essays such as “Cento anni di serie A”; he made 19 videotapes about football. In his long career he has collaborated with over 90 Italian and foreign newspapers, including the monthly “La magazine” of which he was director for two years. He has made television documentaries on the five continents.