I’ll tell you about Paolo Rossi from Perugia Calcio
Paolo Rossi of Perugia Calcio seen by Paola Sacchi
Paolo Rossi, “Pablito”, died. The 1982 world champion, Italy-Brazil. The final of "Azzurri, today or never". The Mundial match in Spain, which, with his "schicchera" of goals, washed away the shame of the terrible defeat of another final, that Brazil-Italy of 4 to 1 miraculously drawn by Roberto Boninsegna "Bonimba" in "Mexico ”70 in the first half before it was the defeat of the exhausted“ heroes ”of Azteca,“ El partido del siglo ”, Italy-Germany 4 to 3. But Rossi was not only the world champion. He became a champion of the Italian province, from Lanerossi Vicenza, still a kid, to Perugia football. I met "Pablito" as a journalist, very young too, of an important TV in Umbria.
Rossi, hired, with a brilliant move, by the then president of the club Franco D'Attoma, in the team of Ilario Castagner, former vice champion of Italy, already with a record in being undefeated, gave further luster and glory to a city of the province, although it is the regional capital. Those were the years in which Perugia Calcio was still in shock for the death of the little-great Renato Curi , who died in his twenties, one Sunday of mud and rain in Pian di Massiano, when he fell to the ground, in the middle of the field, shot dead by a heart attack of his "crazy heart". This has been called the “Curi” stadium for many years now. But perhaps, who knows, ideally it could also be called "Curi – Rossi" who came to Perugia, even in that case, as if by a strange destiny, to remedy an ugly twist of fate.
"Pablito", vice-champion of Italy, was a young, agile and slippery kid, who often found him on Umbria TV. We journalists were all in one room, including Radio Perugia1. He came there and patiently waited for his turn for interviews, but above all he was curious about our work in other sectors such as the meetings of the Regional Council or the disputes in Perugia.
One day, I remember, I was particularly in a hurry and, then in times when people still smoked everywhere, I asked unwisely, point-blank, to a little boy, seen from behind, with a modest air, mistaken by me for a bellboy or assistant an operator, with a cigarette ready in hand: “Oh, what are you making me light up ?!”. The boy, dressed casually, with beige tones, immediately held out his hand with a lit match. Then matches were still used. A colleague approached me: “Are you crazy? Look who is Rossi ”. "Pablito" smiled nicely.
He contributed to making the Umbrian capital live a dream, which never happened again. Unfortunately, there was the story of the "Calcioscommesse", from which he always declared himself a stranger. And even that should really be told all, because, even if I followed the case only by reflex, he, as much more experienced colleagues than me claimed and as yesterday was remembered on Twitter, was only touched upon and brought up because he did not report having received proposals which, however, he refused. He was disqualified but Mundial returned. And the image of the little boy who went by degrees remains intact, first making the province dream and then the whole of Italy. Perhaps this is the best football, the one that began by first turning on the stadium lights in the small and many bell towers, of which the peninsula is carpeted, as did Gigi Riva with the little Cagliari who became champion of Italy, to make the country dream. whole.
Stories of small, medium-sized cities that perhaps without being blessed with the luck of having a resigned kid in their teams, future world champion, would be less important today.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/vi-racconto-il-paolo-rossi-del-perugia-calcio/ on Fri, 11 Dec 2020 05:36:38 +0000.