He has surpassed all the icebergs in football, even cutting goals for the most unattainable. Nicolò Barella, at 26, is a top player in all respects, so much so that tomorrow he will play the Champions League final in Istanbul as a protagonist, with Manchester City.
For the Inter midfielder, who grew up in the Gigi Riva football school and matured to professionalism in Cagliari, it is the completion of a journey that began two seasons ago with the Scudetto, won with the Nerazzurri shirt, and continued with the European Cup , brought home with the national team, which earned him the title of Knight.
But he is not the first Sardinian to have achieved the goal of playing in the Champions League final. When it was still called the Champions Cup Antonello Cuccureddu played it with Juventus and Pietro Paolo Virdis even won it.
Antonello Cuccureddu from his home in Alghero prefers not to remember how it ended for the bianconeri in 1973 in Belgrade with Ajax. But he encourages the Cagliaritan in view of Manchester City: «I'm glad that a Sardinian, even if an Inter fan, has this honour. He's getting what he deserves, I like him as a player and as a boy: he has character and technical qualities. Watching him play is a pleasure: maybe he should talk less on the pitch. But the character is that, slowly he will understand it. It honors Sardinia. Of course, I'm a Juventus player, but apart from the colors, I'm happy about the island».
Virdis, on the other hand, gives Barella advice, but speaks from the Rossoneri heart : with that shirt, in fact, he felt the thrill of lifting the big-eared cup in 1989 in Barcelona against Steaua of Bucharest, the only Sardinian to have succeeded. "I wish him to be a great protagonist, as he has been so far, but at the same time as a Milan fan I cannot wish for his team to win," he says. "I think the satisfaction and excitement will grow as the match approaches, but I think the boy has good self-control."
At the Ataturk stadium in Istanbul, Inter and Manchester City will meet tomorrow at 21. The Polish Szymon Marciniak will referee.
Then it remains to be understood, regardless of Inter's result in Turkey, whether the Cagliaritan will be tempted by the English sirens or not.