Pierluigi Frosio died: elegant, visionary, precursor, who he was

The existential figure of Pierluigi Frosio was elegance, a quality that always presupposes a certain idea of ​​the world. On the pitch, elegance translated into a harmonious gesture when it came to hitting the ball and taking a position at the defense rag. Outside, as a coach, in that way of reaching out and relating to humanity, characteristic of those who are cut off from a life of moral cleanliness.

Brianzolo, born in 1948, Frosio was a failed cyclist, as a boy he had worked as a tinsmith, because sacrifice – for that generation – was an ethical duty. He played free, when – 70s – he was still free, even to stay five meters behind the defense line to dictate the times, call his teammates to mark, set the action, advancing with short steps towards midfield or throwing long, let the others think about running. Two years at Pro Sesto, two at Legnano, one at Rovereto: he made his bones like this, in Serie C. In Cesena (1972-74) he won the first historic promotion to A of the Romagna club, but it was in the decade of Perugia that Frosio becomes a recognizable, credible, appreciated figurine. 323 appearances between A (record holder of the club with 170 stamps) and B – accompanied by 8 goals – from 1974 to 1984, a flag in a transition phase of our football, from black and white to color, from a free-range everyday life to dawn of showbusiness. In Perugia – in 1977 – he had seen his teammate, Renato Curi, who collapsed during a match against Juventus, died on the pitch. Those were seasons in which even the provincial clubs could dream big. Perugia, conceived by the foresight of Franco D’Attoma, managed by ds Silvano Ramaccioni and coached by the emerging Ilario Castagner, had come close to the Scudetto in 1978-79, closing the championship as an unbeaten one behind Milan who won the Star that year. It was the team of Malizia and Ceccarini, Bagni and Vannini, Speggiorin and Casarsa, Dal Fiume and Nappi: many honest tradesmen who had not only their captain in Frosio, but a point of reference, a role model.

The last season of his long career – he had stopped at 37 – Frosio played in Rimini, in Serie C. A young Arrigo Sacchi wanted it, who needed an experienced guide for the defensive department. And from Sacchi he had caught the spark of modernity (pressing, zone play, the idea of ​​a team-orchestra), just as he had learned the rudiments and secrets of the trade from Gigi Radici and Castagner. So naturally, then, as it happened at the time for many players who had been coaches on the pitch; Frosio had begun to coach: the youth teams of Perugia, Monza which in 1987 was promoted to Serie B and touched on Serie A (he launched the talented Gigi Casiraghi and Giovannino Stroppa, but also saw the growth of many boys who would have made themselves appreciated in A: Francesco Antonioli, Anselmo Robbiati, Corrado Verdelli, Stefano Pellegrini) and then Atalanta, for his first and last Serie A, called by the president Cesare Bortolotti, who preferred him to Lippi and Radice.

His adventure did not last long, only 18 days before the exemption. With Stromberg’s Atalanta – “The strongest and most complete player I have coached”, he said one day – also engaged on the European front: Frosio only stopped in the quarterfinals eliminated by Inter, who would have won the tournament. He had got there by overcoming challenging obstacles: Boban’s Dinamo Zagreb, Fenerbahce and Cologne. At that point – the Bergamo experience closed – the curriculum winds between B and C. Como, Modena, Ravenna, Novara (promoted from C2 to C1), Modena, Monza, Padua, Ancona again, to close in Lecco, in the 2006, the last stage of a career that started in a very promising way but which at a certain point ran aground, due to meetings and crooked coincidences, denying Pierluigi Frosio the satisfactions he deserved, certainly for his competence and passion and why – today that he is gone – there remains the trace of a respectable man, a good coach who has sown a lot and has not always reaped.