«It's that news and above all those tributes so unrelated to Italian traditions that make your heart beat». Marino Bartoletti is a journalist and writer, but he is also an expert on the history of sport. And so he welcomes, with a long reflection dipped in amarcord, the news of the naming of the stadium of the future in Cagliari after Gigi Riva, with the vote of the city council.
Ora è ufficiale: Cagliari avrà lo stadio “Gigi Riva”
The premise is that he hopes "it will be built in an acceptable time frame". But Bartoletti goes on to say that «it will be dedicated to the brightest symbol of Sardinian football and certainly also to one of the most legendary "myths" of Italian football».
In this country «where too much honor is “after” and almost never “during”», continues Bartoletti, who cites the example of the dedication to Nicola Pietrangeli of the Foro Italico centre-back, «it was about time that football also reached a initiative of this kind. Riva is an example, a symbol, a healthy bearer of greatness and consistency applied to sport».
If it is right for Sardinians to love their land, he is Sardinian "by choice", he recalls, "to the point of having resisted, in order not to betray "his" land to the temptations and the loudest pressures of the most famous Italian teams".
Then the anecdote: «Once to a powerful man who was surprised by his refusal (four important players in exchange, plus two billion lire) he replied: " It is a quotation for which at the first small mistake someone will yell at me" go back to Sardinia " . I am in Sardinia and I will stay there: because I know they will always love me. Even regardless of a missed goal».
The conclusion of the thoughts is in Sardinian: «Avanti, fortza paris».