Sportweek. Bolaffi, on 12 May the auction of stickers

There is Juve-Inter real, the one on Wednesday 11 with the Italian Cup at stake, and there is the one of dreams. The first is played at the Olimpico and it will all be Vlahovic against Lautaro, Allegri challenges Inzaghi, Derby d’Italia and so on. The other, scheduled for the following day, will smell of memories, albums, unwrapped packages, expectations, of children with doubles, celo missing and if-give-me-the-scudetto-del-Bari-ti-do-everything -il-Milan-I-swear.

Bolaffi has in fact organized for Thursday 12 May the first Italian monographic auction of stickers (live Internet mode on Astabolaffi.it) and for that day Juve-Inter will mean – also – Platini and Zidane on the one hand, Meazza and Facchetti on the other. Piola and Coman “against” Roby Baggio and Tarcisio Burgnich. All of them are very difficult, if not impossible, to trace. It must be said immediately, it is an auction that will hurt the wallets of the football patients that once were, because just looking at the catalog of the 224 lots at stake one gets excited at every leaf: for the young Meroni as for Dino Zoff in the jersey salmon-colored Mantua; for the very young Paolo Rossi with the Como shirt and because, one sticky paper at a time, it is possible to retrace the entire career of Diego Armando Maradona. And it turns out that the most prized of the Pibe is not one from the era of Naples or its famous 1986 World Cup, but the one dated 1979 wearing the red jersey of Argentinos Juniors.

exchanges and strategies

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Pizzaballa, “Maciste” Bolchi and Malgioglio make up the trio of dreams of the very affectionate Mancoliste. Mancolists? Well yes, this icy word bordering on bureaucratese, referring to the list of missing pieces of a collection, should contain in a few letters the worries, the exchange strategies, the small assets at the newsstand and the frantic searches – not to mention the lack of exchanges. of reasonableness: the complete album-card could be “paid for” a full drawer of doubles, at least – of millions of kids now addicted and addicted to the newsstand rush. Mancolism aside, here we are with our sticky paper heroes. The first: Pier Luigi Pizzaballa is by definition untraceable because the day in 1963 when the Panini photographer went to the Atalanta ones to photograph them, the young goalkeeper was not there and the collection went to press without him. It took a couple of months for the collectors’ protests to fill the void, but the aura of nowhere to be found, even when his card became one like all the others, had already been assigned. Forever, since we’re still here talking about it. Then there is Bruno Bolchi: in 1961 it was the first figurine printed by Panini, all that is needed to make it a four-leaf clover. The third is Astutillo Malgioglio, a record goalkeeper but not for typographical reasons: still as an Inter player he had started his activity in support of people with disabilities and this “primacy” – find him one of A who sooner or later has done the same … – he made him a character beyond the fact that with Zenga in front he practically never played.

Bartali and coppi

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As for the stamps, in the stickers there is the “Gronchi Rosa” on duty: it is the double Roberto Baggio-Paolo Monelli from the Edis 1984-85 collection in which the captions of the two Fiorentina forwards were reversed. As for popularity, the organizers baptize that of Pelé with the Brazil jersey from the 1970 World Cup collection as the most “famous” card in history. True or not, it is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful at auction, although there is no lack of competition. Also because it will be possible to win above all stickers of footballers and in particular of the Panini collections (about 70 percent of the total), but also lovers of cycling, Formula 1 and even wrestling (yes, there is The Undertaker of 1991 ) will be able to fulfill their childhood dreams. Thanks to the Jackson Five (Panini, 1972) with a 14-year-old Michael already a star, there is even room for music. Among tracks and racetracks, the young Ayrton Senna stands out in the years of Toleman: he is the protagonist of the card with the highest starting price (5 thousand euros), while a very young and almost unrecognizable Gino Bartali (starting from 500 euros) makes a good show in the “Sport Mera e Longhi” 1935-36 collection. For his long-time rival Fausto Coppi “only” 50 euros.