Rapallo inaugurates viale Vialli. Former Sampdoria teammates: “Luca always with us”

Rapallo – Viale Gianluca Vialli. Since yesterday in Rapallo there is a street dedicated to the bomber. The first in the world. Sampdoria president Marco Lanna and mayor Carlo Bagnasco unveil the plaque around 7pm. The Sampdoria flags of the hundreds of fans present are waving between the Macera stadium and Via della Libertà. The rain falling lightly helps hide the drops of emotion. Among which are the many smiles torn by the anecdotes of the Sampdoria Vialli told by Mannini, Pagliuca, Ivano Bonetti, Invernizzi, Bistazzoni. The former Sampd'oro players, accompanied by Francesca Mantovani and Enrico Nicolini, launch and join the fans' chants as the fireworks go off. “Luca Vialli scores for us” and “Luca Vialli alè alè, we love you and we adore you, you are better than Pelé” rise loudly into the sky.

«And up there, Luca will be happy – assures Lanna – to have his name here, near a football field where many young people can be inspired by his values. The hug with Mancio at the European Championships united all of us Sampdorians. And Florenzi's words thanking Luca made us understand even more how much he was a motivator, how much he was worth off the pitch too. I get emotional every time I talk about him, sometimes I cry alone when I think about him.”

Lanna took action to have Vialli named after him also a road in Genoa, in the Waterfront complex. The choice of Rapallo after a year after the champion's disappearance can lead the way. «An avenue for Vialli. But he himself showed us a precise path – observes Giovanni Invernizzi, head of the Sampdoria Academy – that of always having to fight for one's dreams, being enterprising. Luca set goals and did everything to achieve them. Great teammate, friend, champion. He is a great man, of supreme intelligence. We think about him every day. And in recent years, the most difficult ones, we have become even closer. What is happening shows that he left us a lot. Congratulations to Rapallo for this initiative.”

Pagliuca and companions they give themselves up to the embrace of the fans. «Luca will watch us from heaven and will be happy with this day – says The Wall – he is always with us, with this group of brothers. Unfortunately he left too soon. Six years with Luca made me understand a lot. At first I was a kid, he weaned me, cheered me up. I will always tell him “thank you”. Every now and then I listen to his vocals again and I get so excited.”

Eolo Mannini remembers Vialli-Pisolo in the dinners of the 7 dwarfs: «He had his eye half out, but it was out of cunning – smiles Moreno – Luca hated sad things, It's right to remember him with a smile on your face. We arrived at Sampdoria together in 1984 and achieved unexpected goals thanks also to the alchemy we created in our group. Luca was younger than me, but I listened to him willingly, he always had the right word.”

Ivano Bonetti describes his friend Vialli like this: «Luca was invincible, he is inside me every minute of my life. We were opposites, he was precise, I wasn't, when I went to his house he noticed even if I moved the curtains. But then he liked coming to my house, being with me. I still don't realize, I think of his face, I see his smile again. Now it will be up there that he tells me “Ivano, don't say too much shit”.

Guido Bistazzoni recalls the legendary toothpick prank played on Briegel: «We were on retreat in Holland. The game consisted of placing your hand on the toothpicks to see how many remained attached. Only when he put his hand on Briegel, Luca pressed it hard on him. I remember the German with a hundred toothpicks stuck in his hand chasing him around the table and us trying to stop him.”

The desire to joke has never abandoned the champion. «I told him that if he had become president of Sampdoria – reveals Francesca Mantovani – I would have made my hair platinum blonde like him after the scudetto. And Luca: “No, platinum is too little, make them green, purple, dare more!”. Marco Ponti, director of “La Bella Season”, recounts an episode revealed to him by Vialli himself: «He went to the hospital and there was a different doctor than usual who looked at him and said: “You know he looks like Bruce Willis”. And Luca: “Yes, some also say that he resembles a former footballer”. The doctor looks at Vialli's photo as a player and says: “No, he looks more like Bruce Willis.” “You see – Luca told me – if you work hard all your life, you commit yourself, in the end you become Bruce Willis.”

There is also room for the former rossoblù captain Claudio Onofri, which underlines the human depth of Vialli. «We are talking about a champion who goes beyond colors», explains the mayor of Rapallo Carlo Bagnasco. Don Jacopo blesses the plaque. After a while, however, you realize that there is a mistake: it says Sestriere Cappelletta instead of Sestiere. «We will redo the plaque tomorrow (today),» assures Bagnasco. Viale Gianluca Vialli is reality. And he goes back to singing for the bomber.