A gold chain, a monkey and a Brazilian footballer: four decades of cruel ultra mockery in an explosive derby

In today’s football, in which the fight against racism in stadiums and stands has become a crusade throughout Europe, what happened in 1983 before Sampdoria-Genoa, one of the most passionate derbies in Italy, is an outrage that is unthinkable today. That year, Claudio Bosotin, historic leader of the ‘Samp’ ultras, jumped onto the field in the minutes before the game accompanied by a monkey dressed in the rival team’s shirt. On the back of the elastic that covered the animal was the number 10, the digit usually worn by Eloi, a Brazilian soccer player signed that season by the other team in the city. A cruel mockery. The one known as ‘Derbi della Lanterna’ (Lantern Derby) between Sampdoria and Genoa is, without a doubt, one of the hottest disputed in Italian football. Two teams that share a stadium, Luigi Ferraris, and with an irreconcilable rivalry between their fans, which sometimes surpasses all limits. Related News report Yes Football radicals, in focus The Spanish ultras: less violent and few but very ideologized Juan Fernández-Miranda standard No Antiviolencia proposes closing the Metropolitano for two weeks due to the incidents in the derby Jorge AbizandaAn example is what happened in 1983, when Bosotin could not think of anything other than to jump onto the field before the derby holding on to a monkey dressed in the rival team’s shirt, on which the number 10 of Brazilian Eloi appeared. How did Sampdoria’s ultra leader get the animal? As he explained years later in the Italian media, he got the idea of ​​this unfortunate mockery when he was passing in front of a zoo installed in the city. Without thinking twice, he didn’t think twice and asked to speak to the director, with whom he ended up having a conversation. “I need you to lend me a monkey to take to a sporting event,” he said, to the surprise of his interlocutor. A hot derby In the match between Sampdoria and Genoa played in 1983, local radicals jumped onto the field with a primate dressed With the shirt of Brazilian Eloi, a Brazilian soccer player from the city’s rival team, Bosotin ended up getting his wish, although taking the animal was not easy nor did it come for free. “To have the monkey, and as a guarantee that I would return it, I had to leave the zoo director a gold chain and the keys to my car,” he explained years later in ‘Calcio 2000’. When the day of the derby arrived, the next obstacle was being able to enter the stadium with a jumpsuit, which he wore already dressed in the Genoa player’s shirt. When remembering the episode, the ultra Bosotin narrated the surrealism of the moment. «Until that moment everything was going according to plan. Upon entering the stadium, however, the problem arose. The security members stopped me and one of them told me: ‘Excuse me, animals can’t enter.'” Bosotin’s response was as crazy as it was unexpected. “Hey, it’s not an animal, it’s my son,” he questioned the member of the stadium security who had addressed him. The fact is that, although he never revealed how he ended up achieving it, the leader of the Sampdoria ultras ended up being able to access accompanied by the primate. When the line-ups were being sung from the Luigi Ferraris public address system, Claudio Bosotin and another well-known Samp ultra leader jumped onto the field alongside the monkey to the surprise of the fans present in the stadium. A cruel mockery that is still remembered among the most veteran radicals of the Genoese team. That match ended with a victory for Sampdoria against its eternal rival (2-0), which at the end of the season would end up being relegated.

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