At Porta Nuova many of those who knew the great striker shared stories and tributes: “Funny and brilliant”
When the September light starts to get warmer above the Library of Trees, those curls that no one forgets also appear in the video: it is not an illusion, not even rhetorical, Luca Vialli is really still here, among the people who came to remember him in the Porta area New in Milan. Every word spoken on stage by friends and professionals who have met him, and also by his nephew Riccardo representing the family, serves to make him come alive. Indeed, the title of the initiative on the billboard of the “Fuoricinema” event wards off death: it is called “Luca Vita” and it was a touching and funny tribute. A kaleidoscope of various testimonies and curious anecdotes that have tied together the thread of the many careers of a unique champion, “talented and obsessive” both on the pitch and as a TV commentator, but also in the last stretch of the road as team manager of the national team, when in body had an unwanted travel companion.
from the beginning
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We started from the beginning at Cremonese together with a sweet father like Emiliano Mondonico: “He called him child, in the fog there were often just the two of them left to train – said Clara, the daughter of “Mondo” -. Then every time he told him: ‘ You became Vialli thanks to me…’. I hope they don’t make too much noise together up there.” Francesca, who is the daughter of former Sampdoria president Paolo Mantovani, made it a question of belonging: “Luca is ours alone, from Sampdoria. He was the symbol of youth and in the south steps I sing the same chorus: Luca Vialli alè, you are better than Pele.” Also talking about the Sampdorian journey that ended with the 1991 scudetto were Pierdomenico Baccalario and Marco Ponti, new friends met along the way: they are the writer of the book “La Bella Season” and the director of the beautiful documentary that was born from it. However, his brotherly friend Ciro Ferrara, who, having just arrived in Turin, lived in Luca’s house, went through his Juventus life. Strange things could happen there, especially at dawn: “Once the phone rang, Luca suddenly woke up and told the Lawyer about a goal by Gullit that he had never seen: he told him about a shot from outside, but Ruud had scored in the head… He was like that, funny and brilliant: my captain forever”, said Ciro.
sympathy
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Hosting the event on the open-air stage was Sky commentator Paolo Condò, who as a Gazzetta reporter has covered Vialli since the beginning, often in the company of his colleague Alessandro De Calò, also a guest at the event. Thus, in over an hour of memories and emotions, all of Luca’s faces appeared. For example, the prankster Vialli who walked naked in a Stuttgart park because of a bet he lost in the national team. The one who didn’t lose his smile even during his illness and pretended to be Bruce Willis in a London hospital. But also the serious and methodical Vialli before each TV episode: “But what do you study, if you know everything?”, Ilaria D’Amico asked him. The answer, however, said everything about that uncommon character: “he always told me that he wanted to be perfect”, said the former Sky presenter. Unforgettable, obviously, was the original Vialli, an extraordinary center forward who was difficult to mark, as his uncle Bergomi reiterated: “He was loyal, strong and correct, and then how much he ran… He called me Giuseppe and before every match the usual phrase: ” No knees in the back today please…”. His friend Ferrara, on the other hand, still has other beatings in mind in his days in Naples: “It was 1986, Bruscolotti knocked him out and yelled at him: ‘Do you want the World Cup? Then shut up!'”
it’s not goodbye
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Lastly, here is Vialli who healed any previous wounds with the national team at Wembley. Federal president Pasquale Gravina explained step by step the long courtship before Luca accepted the role of team manager. And all with a decisive warning: “Woe if we don’t have to recognize that there was so much of him in that European success: he left us seeds to germinate in future generations”. But it is also the way in which the champion said goodbye to us on January 6 this year that defines his greatness. The director of the Gazzetta dello Sport, Stefano Barigelli, focused on this aspect: “In the midst of the pandemic he took part in our festival: he wasn’t well, but he came anyway, he was strong and discreet. He embodied rare qualities even outside of football, courage and generosity. And he was a champion even in his exit from the scene.” However, hearing the emotion of the people applauding, it is clear that Vialli never really said goodbye to us.
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