Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy's football world (and beyond) mourn the death of Gigi Riva. The teammates of the legendary Cagliari, capable of winning a historic and unrepeatable scudetto in 1970, remember him fondly. And in tears.
«A great pain. We were together for more than 20 years in the field and when he was a manager. He was the greatest Italian goalscorer, there was none like him, he was strong in everything", is the testimony to Ansa by Mario Brugnera, Rombo di Tuono's teammate from 1968 to 1976. "An exceptional boy. When I took the free kick for the championship goal, he passed by me to tell me how he wanted me to pass the ball to him. If we review the images we can see how he whispers something to me. That's how we won the scudetto."
«I lose a brother, we spent many years together, we slept together with Cagliari and with the national team», says Enrico Albertosi, «I lose a person who was important to me. Even today we spoke on the phone and I heard him well, I didn't know he had heart problems."
And not even Rombo di Tuono knew it: only the tests carried out after his admission to Brotzu this morning revealed an acute coronary syndrome. Which required angioplasty surgery, rejected by Rombo di Tuono.
«When I arrived in Cagliari», remembers Roberto Boninsegna, «he was there and I slept with him in the room together. They were wonderful years, because that was a Cagliari that was being born. Not having a car, we lived together. Breakfast, lunch, dinners: everything. It ran everywhere on me. We were friends and we still were even if we felt less like each other."
«When I started playing in the first team», recalls Renato Copparoni, «I was 16 and a half years old, in the Italian Cup in 1969. I saw Riva and called him "lei". He laughed and told me: call me Gigi. At Christmas I went to visit him at his house. He was fine, he was lucid. We laughed and joked. I could never have imagined that it would be the last time I saw him. When I played for everyone I was Coppa, he was the only one who called me Renato. I lose a true friend."
(Unioneonline)