I felt sorry. The cable is always concise, summary: “Gigi Riva died”. Who was…? An Italian left winger, “more left-footed than Stalin,” Valerio would say, a veteran occupant of the last table at Vicente's bar, always full of soccer fans who know everything.
Yes, Riva only used his right to support himself, the cross bombs were all with the “sinistra”. Valerio, Roman, arrived in Buenos Aires for months, like so many, is a Lazio typhoid, but like every Italian, lover of Gigi Riva. Ma, per ché…? why so much adoration…?
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In numbers, nothing bombastic: 213 goals between clubs and national team. But with one addition: Riva is the top scorer in the history of the Italian team: 35 goals in 42 games, at an average that neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Messi: 0.83 per game. In other words, he came in and put it in. “His goals were more a certainty than a hope,” he wrote. Stefano Barigelli, director of La Gazzzetta dello Sport, in a wonderful farewell to the venerated Gigi.
And that was in the golden days of Calcio, when the national team was made up of big names, like Albertosi, Facchetti, Burgnich, Mazzola, Gianni Rivera. “I feel infinite sadness, it is a great loss, it was impossible not to be his friend, an exquisite person,” said the remembered man. Dino Zoff, companion of so many football battles. “We even did military service together,” he said.
All of Italy mourned him on the front pages of the newspapers. Not only sports ones, but also general ones. The Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Messagero, Il Giornale, Il Resto del Carlino. Everyone postponed politics or the economy and offered their covers to the Rombo di Tuono (Roar of Thunder), as the famous journalist and writer Gianni Brera had baptized it, in that funny nickname used by sports writers.
“Addio Riva, eternal myth of Italian Calcio”, “Addio, Rombo”, “A Rombo in the sky”, “Unico”, “Angelo Azzurro”, “Rombo d'Italia”, the titles were all flowers thrown on his grave . In the stadiums, too, all the clubs and fans said goodbye to him with respect and sadness even though he was not their player.
Why so loved…? Gigi Riva is a story. Orphaned as a child by his father and mother, he played for a season at Legnano, near his town, and was immediately signed by Cagliari, which had managed to be promoted to the First Division for the first time. At the age of 18 he crossed the Tyrrhenian Sea and never lived on the continent again, only to play or visit.
“An island is only an island if you look at it from the sea; Gigi Riva never wanted to complete the return trip,” wrote colleague Paolo Marcacci. Riva fell in love with Sardinia, Cagliari and Gianna Tofanari, a stunning blonde whom he would never marry, but with whom he would have two children.
Juventus and Inter harassed him year after year with proposals that always added a zero, but Gigi always said no. Gianni Agnelli, the richest man in Europe, owner of Fiat, Ferrari, Juventus, was obsessed with watching him play in black and white.
No one could tear Riva off the island. She swore eternal love to Cagliari. “Until death do us part”. So it was. In the only Scudetto won by the island club, in 1970, Riva was the star and the top scorer of the championship. It was as if Platense were champion, but the figure of that Platense was also the golden ace of the Italian National Team, the winning card in international tournaments. Tall, thin, handsome, with a very low profile and an unrepentant smoker, with a love that scandalized Italy because Gianna had separated to be with Gigi.
“His sporting successes, his very serious character, the dignity of his behavior in all circumstances earned him the affection of millions of Italians, even among those who do not follow football,” explained Sergio Mattarella, president of the Republic, who was one More than he fired the crack, but above all the person.
“He scored with his left, he spoke with silence,” headlined the Gazzetta. After his retirement, Riva was named a member of the national team's sports management, but in truth he served as a symbol, more than anything he was always with the players, who idolized him. “I told him every day: you are the myth of myths. An exceptional human being, who transmitted many values to us,” confessed Fabio Cannavaro through tears. Riva, who could not win the world final against Brazil in 1970, retaliated in 2006 in the role of leader, friend, and advisor. He only won two titles with shorts: the 1968 Euro Cup with Italy and the 1970 Serie “A” championship for Cagliari. They were enough for him to be the most beloved. But that Scudetto of '70 had sociopolitical overtones: “It represented the true entry of the island into Italy,” said Gianni Brera. That is why he is the prodigal son of Sardinia, although he was born in Lombardy.
“Hello, dad, Riva has died and I think of you. You told me: who was the strongest of ours? Gigi Riva. More than Rivera, I think because of his face, because of something that could not be measured on the field, and before Baggio, who had not yet arrived, then we learned to say: Riva and Baggio.”
This is how Marco Bucciantini begins his editorial in the Gazzetta dello Sport, which dedicated the best of its edition to the illustrious deceased. “He embodied the spirit of post-war Italy: strength, seriousness, desire for freedom. And his goals were the link between old and young,” he adds.
Again we ask ourselves: why so loved…? The golden left foot, yes, the goals too. “If the defense closes well we can win, Gigi is going to score a goal,” the fans were excited. If a ball was near the area, he would know how to do it. Gigi was in charge of scoring the first goal of the final in the '68 European Championship, and the third against Germany in the so-called “Match of the Century” at the World Cup in Mexico '70. And so many others. But much more than that, temperance, bravery, behavior. He was going to live up to the commitment. Against England, Brazil, France or whoever. Perhaps no one symbolized Italianness like Riva. It was the pride of having it. In times of peace, wars are represented by football, it is the flag of what we are.
What are idols…? They are those characters that embody our dreams, who usually make us happy. The triumph that we long for as people is in the legs and in the minds of those sports heroes, clad in a T-shirt, he embodies our efforts. When we hear the anthem and the camera pans over the faces of the columned players, we ask Mbappé, Harry Kane, Messi, Luis Díaz, Luis Suárez, our captains to do it, to dress up as Superman and bring us the happiness.
We were shocked by Riva's departure, like that of Beckenbauer, Müller or George Best, we followed his career, we appreciated his virtues. It happens like when an actor or actress who has been seen regularly dies. One follows the trajectory, one follows it with admiration and respect. The death of an idol also tells us that time passes.
Cagliari retired the number 11 shirt in 2005, now they will name their stadium after Riva. Okay, not a bit less.
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Jorge Barraza
For the time
@JorgeBarrazaOK
#Death #idol.. #Tango
