Brussels – A life for the Cagliari Calcio football team; he was not from Cagliari but became part of the city; he was a star wearing the red-blue jersey and the blue one of the national team for which he still holds the record as the all-time leading scorer. The image of a land, Sardinia, capable of rewriting logic and rankings, an icon of Italian football that has gone down in history for winning the first European Championship in history also with the help of a coin and a World Cup final after an Italy-Germany 4-3 win that is soccer history books and forever imprinted in the memory and culture of an entire country. Gigi Riva: Italian champion with Cagliari and Europe champion with Italy; a superb champion who does not need introductions. He got everyone to agree because of his undisputed and unquestionable talents and his ability not to give in to the temptation of easy money and easy careers. He was a symbol, an idol, an example, and an inspiration, even for sports choices. Like Alberto, among the promoters of the Cagliari Club Bruxelles. Like Riva, Alberto was born in Lombardy, and like Riva, Alberto also declares undying love for Cagliari.
The dismay and disbelief at the passing of ‘the Thunderbolt’ (Riva’s nickname) takes time to metabolize. As a courtesy, Alberto entrusts Eunews with his personal memories of an important figure for him, so much so that he convinced fellow football fans and named the Cagliari Club Bruxelles after Gigi Riva himself.
“In the medium-small northern town where I lived, in the late 1960s children would cheer Milan, Inter, or Juventus. I discovered soccer around ’68-’69, right after Italy won the European Championship. And I was struck by that skinny, silent player, despite the fact that he was already constantly in the spotlight of the media (although they didn’t say that back then).
And so I became his fan, and consequently a Cagliari fan. Ready to change teams if he left.
But he did not leave even if the richest and most titled teams made a ruthless courtship for him, and even though the Sardinian club was willing to make the “sacrifice” (which would have brought it a lot of money and a bunch of quality players). Gigi Riva did not want to leave: an example, among many possible, of his singularity. Gianni Mura baptized him as El hombre vertical. To emphasize a character that even then was already an exception in soccer.
He was an exceptional player: the quality, the power, the generosity, the vision in scoring. His 35 goals in 42 games with the national team (at a time when there were far fewer games and deflected shots were counted as own goals and therefore not awarded!) are worth a lot, and still we cannot see who could break that record that has lasted almost 50 years. Gianni Mura again, “The number of goals is like the salad on the plate, a side dish. Riva will remain unattainable for other reasons: the silence that fell in the stadium every time he hit the ball, it was the Rombo di tuono, it was the anticipation he guaranteed for something only he could do.”
But it is Riva, as the man, who has left his mark. In Sardinia, first and foremost: “I always dedicate my goals to Sardinia. It’s something that goes beyond soccer. I was not born in Cagliari, but it is as if I had been. It is not even a debt of gratitude, but reciprocated love.”
He walked away from soccer after his third horrendous injury, again without proclamation or fanfare, when he was only 31. He is now gone from life, and the child of the 1960s is receiving messages from friends as if it was his own family member who had died.
Ti sia lieve la terra, GigiRiva”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
