Giacomo Losi, farewell to the flagship captain of Roma: he won two Italian cups and one of the Fairs

Giacomo Losi, farewell to the flagship captain of Roma: he won two Italian cups and one of the Fairs

The passing of Giacomo Losi at 88, one of the pillars of Roma from another era, is a hard blow for the team and the fans. A symbolic player of the Giallorossi team, third in terms of appearances after Totti and De Rossi. The announcement was made by his nephew and former Rai manager Massimo Liofredi: “Uncle Giacomo has gone to heaven. He remained attached to the Giallorossi shirt until the end, for which he had an immense love and which he continued to follow on every occasion.”

Before Mourinho's victory in the Conference League, Losi had been the only one to lift an international trophy towards the sky, the Fairs Cup together with two Italian cups. His career as a full-back began when Roma signed him in 1953 from Cremonese in Serie C. He then began playing on the banks of the Tiber in the 1955-56 season and remained there until 1968-69, put to rest by the “magician” Helenio Herrera, collecting 15 seasons and 386 games, of which 299 as captain. He ended his career with a well-known minor team from the capital, Tevere Roma, which was then playing in Serie D.

He also played for the national team, collecting 11 appearances in total.

A personal memory ties me to him. As a kid I had started, like everyone else, to collect football cards, the legendary Panini ones that piled up in gigantic albums swollen with glue. As a Roma fan I had memorized the names of the players and when my father told me that Losi, after having stopped playing, had opened a bar near the Trastevere station in the 70s, I took him there to meet him. We were lucky. Losi was present. I hadn't seen him play but he had recently stopped and so he talked to me for a bit, eventually giving me an autographed black and white photograph of himself which I kept as a precious trophy and which I showed to friends, being careful not to ruin it.

The bar later changed its name from “Losi” to “L'oasi” and for several years it presided over the corner between the Gianicolense ring road and Viale Trastevere, with its sign showing a green palm tree. He was an old-fashioned defender. He started at right back and finished as libero. In the penalty area he showed remarkable acrobatic ability and a profound sense of timing, which often led him to anticipate the attackers. A very correct player, he never suffered disciplinary sanctions and was only mockingly warned in the last match played.

His was the Roma of the 60s who wore a legendary shirt that was wonderful from a chromatic point of view: a red with orange edges and not yellow. It was a time when there weren't the very rich sponsors of today, there were no tattoos, there was no name on the shirts but only progressive numbers that automatically showed the player's role.

A completely different world in which attachment to the club colors was the basis on which fans judged their players. It was a time when the chaperone went to the opponents in the changing rooms, often cold and grim, to offer hot tea to the opponents. A time when values ​​still existed and sport was deeply educational and training and there were no social media to poison the air.

A time that no longer exists, a time of heroes that kids collected with stickers: the time of Giacomo Losi.

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