"First of all, apologies. I never, ever wanted to offend the Sardinians, or anyone else. Mine was an attempt to evoke a Fellinian image». Diego Abatantuono called the editorial staff of L'Unione Sarda after being overwhelmed by the echo of the controversies and invectives raised in this part of the Tyrrhenian Sea due to his statements on Sardinians, published in Corriere della Sera and relaunched on the Unione website.
The actor, a Milanese and AC Milan supporter, had told of his first time at San Siro as a boy: it was a Milan-Cagliari match, he recalls. The rossoblùs won «with a goal from Riva, who was a legend of mine », he says (but perhaps memory betrays him, because the only 0-1 draw at the Rossoneri, in that period, was signed by Hitchens, in '68).
This is how Abatantuono lived it: «It took me twenty minutes to try to enter in time and then lost four minutes and twenty seconds spent in pushing, shoving, "where do you want to go, idiot", before being able to see the field in color And he added: "So, on my debut, I saw at most Sardinians laughing in Nuoro-grey clothes and gray decayed teeth too, combined with inconclusive actions from Milan. I was happy all the same because the Sardinians smiling were rarer than the Boranga figurine. They spoke in a mysterious language which, it was later known, was Sardinian dialect".
And it was this second part that sparked popular indignation on social media. «I use the telephone only to make calls, in fact. My son warned me», underlines the actor, «and after the apologies, which I repeat, I would like to explain. I was disappointed, it was not my intention ».
First of all, the context of that story: «I recalled the period of black and white, of gray Milan, of iron. This is how I saw my childhood . The matches on TV were grey. For the first time, I must have been 14, I saw the green of the field. An odyssey to enter. And when I arrived», he says disconsolately, «we conceded the goal». Then the defeat: " That's why for me even that memory has become gray."
But "the decayed teeth" of the Sardinians? «But there wasn't even one, Sardinian with rotten teeth, of course. I don't even know if they were laughing», adds Abatantuono, «it was an image, a Fellinian transposition of what I experienced. Had there been, I don't know, people from Bari or Bergamo, it would have been the same for me. It was a joke, a story about what a fourteen year old like me went through then. I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding."
The actor reiterates, as often happens in similar cases, that he "has many Sardinian friends" and, among other things, "many have beautiful smiles". And he is keen to point out that «when we recorded Carlo Cracco's transmission, Dinner club, it was I who chose to do it in Sardinia. A beautiful land where I have come many times, for years». He rattles off place names, even little known to the "continental".
"Here, I wanted to apologise. The irony was not read and many got angry», is the conclusion, «I'm really sorry: I'm not used to this type of controversy».
Henry Fresu