Easter, April 12 this year, is something special for all Italians. In previous years, Easter tended to rain heavily and seemed reluctant to overdo people's carnival celebrations; this year's Easter sun was shining brightly, but people were trapped in their homes. But for the more than 1.6 million inhabitants of Sardinia, such a foul joke is not to be mentioned in the face of a passion and glory that has spanned half a century. This easter, they have more reasons and motivation to celebrate: the 50th anniversary of the Serie A title of hometown team Cagliari.
On April 12, 1970, people celebrated Cagliari's victory in the streets.
Visitors from the north, creating the Emerald Coast
The 1960s coincided with Italy's "economic miracle", and Sardinia, located in the Mediterranean, also enjoyed the dividends of this era of rapid progress. For Italians in other regions of the time, Sardinia was quite remote, like the Caribbean islands of today: unique, far from the hustle and bustle, seemingly looking for nothing but a holiday. Indeed, the sardinian character, like the people of the homeland of the famous local writer grazia Deledda, the winner of the 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature, is clear and simple, straight to the point, while Sardinian cuisine, in addition to the curious maggot cheese, is actually full of roast suckling pig, and the taste is reminiscent of the old snowflake Iknusa beer - this brand is the pride of the islanders, witnessed the Cagliari Serie A in 1970, and is still the main sponsor of the team.
Ignatius beer with the same cultural elements as the Cagliari team emblem.
Everything began to change with the arrival of northern capital. With the help of northern merchants, the pristine Sardinian resort has gradually become the emerald coast where the top rich people are now resident. In the 1960s climb of the Cagliari Club, the names of two northern entrepreneurs had to be mentioned: one was the Italian resin owner Nino Rovelli, who was a bobsleigh player in his youth and participated in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland;
Another name, which Inter fans are quite familiar with — Angelo Moratti, the founder of the "Big International" and founder of Salas Oil Company. The concept of stakeholders was not put on the table in Serie A in the 1960s. Because of this, the old Moratti, the owner of inter clubs, can inject funds into Cagliari without concern. Recently, veteran journalist Luca Tresé told the Milano Sport newspaper that it was certainly not clear in that era, but in fact, 51% of the shares in Cagliari at that time belonged to Nino Lovelli, and the shares in the hands of the elder Moratti were about 30%.
Brokering foreign investors like Moratti Sr. was Andrea Arica, the club's vice president and de facto number one. The small man, who used to do business in the oil industry, is a long-sleeved dancer, who also manages the transfer market in addition to investment, and is a regular customer of the Gallia Hotel in Milan. Arica's triumph was naturally the capture of young rookie Gigi Riva from Legnano, who was still in the third division at the time, in 1963: the undisputed MVP in cagliari's history, the absolute protagonist of the league championship, and the top scorer in the history of the Italian national team.
Former Inter president Moratti Sr
Left foot dominant, thunder rumbles
Interestingly, Gigi Riva was actually a northerner, and like the team's big boss at the time, Lovelli, he was also from Varese near Milan. In fact, before the transfer to Cagliari, riva of the Yankees was reluctant to go to the island to open up the wilderness. He certainly didn't think of the story behind it: wearing the Shanghai Island shirt for 315 games, scoring 164 goals, conquering all the out-and-out local fans, and even conquering the greatest journalist in the history of Italian football, Gianni Brera. The editor-in-chief of Sport Milano at the time was initially very disapproving of Riva, as the young striker would only use his left foot. However, how powerful the left foot was——— years later, Riva became the main center of the national team, standing in front of Mazzola or Rivera, and Gianni Brera took inspiration from Deledda's book and gave it the famous nickname "Rombodi Tuono".
Gigi Riva, who represented the Italian national team
Like the miracle of Cagliari's dark horse, Gigi Riva's early life is also a story of counterattack. The future sharpshooter was born into a working-class family, where his father died as a child in an industrial accident, and his mother and an older sister were taken away by illness. Riva spent his teenage years in boarding school. In fact, more than one player in that Cagliari team had a similar bumpy childhood, and it may be because of this that the players have forged deep friendships off the pitch. His own experience has made Riva's personality reticent, he loves the Italian national treasure folk singer de Genoese De André, and took the opportunity to successfully meet the idol of the music industry by taking a away game against Samp. Riva asked de André for inspiration, to which the "folk poet" replied: Sleep during the day and write at night.
The embassy is wild, crazy without limits
From this point of view, singer de Andre coincided with the then-Cagliari champion coach Sko pinho. The level of Scorpinho's madness is that even the younger generations Mazzoné and Malesani have to bow to the wind. He liked to stay up late, so he stipulated that the team could sleep in the morning and training began in the afternoon; his interest in poker allowed him to quickly mingle with the players. But the craziest thing happened during a summer trip to the United States, which was also the first time that Skopiño was at the helm of the Sardinian team: the team visited the local Italian consulate in Chicago, and the impatient Cagliari manager did not find a toilet, and solved the ——— in the back garden of the consulate, another version of this story, is that Skopigno left the "souvenir" on the steering wheel of the team bus. Due to the special nature of the consulate, the incident turned into a diplomatic accident, and Skopigno was swept out of the house without suspense.
Cagliari almost passed the championship manager. The presence of the elder Moratti made cagliari and Inter at that time extremely close: the president of Inter almost invited the character manager to go north to Milan, and the legendary godfather Herrera, who succeeded the departing, ultimately failed to make the trip, and Cagliari also gave the "madman" a second chance. Another important intersection between Cagliari and Inter was the future legendary blue and black striker Boninsenia, who swapped for Inter in 1969 and missed the Sardinian league title. Despite having super scorer ——— he scored 21 league goals in the championship season, crowning top scorer ——— Cagliari under Scorpigno for the third time, and the real magic weapon is defense. In 30 Serie A games, the goal guarded by the future Milan goalkeeper Albertosi conceded only 11 goals, a record comparable to chelsea in the later "Mu I". In addition, Riva also has excellent wingmanships on the offensive end: Gori, who was exchanged from Inter and Boninsenia, complemented Riva as a pseudo-center forward, and in the case of Brazilian Nene, he has partnered three top killers in his career——— Santos Pele, Juve's Sivori, and Cagliari Riva. After retiring from retirement, Nene returned to Cagliari and Juve to play the remaining heat, and was the bole of the teenager Marchisio, who died in 2016. Later, Cagliari came another Brazilian Nene, whose achievements were obviously not comparable to those of his predecessors.
In the 1969-70 season, Cagliari's league championship journey, the biggest opponent was Juventus. In a direct clash between the two sides in March 1970, the home side Cagliari fell behind twice and equalized twice, setting the tone for the final yuan. In the penultimate third round of the league on 12 April, Cagliari won comfortably 2-0 at home against bottom-out Bari, while Juventus lost to Lazio on the other side, and the Sardinians celebrated their first league title in team history two rounds in advance. It was also the team's last match at the old stadium Amsiquera——— the eccentric name comes from a Sardinian warrior under Hannibal during the Punic War in the 3rd century BC. Consistent Sardinian fortitude.
Dream of the golden ball, only one step away
In the first match after the early victory, Cagliari played AC Milan away, before the game, riva and Rivera, who were also teammates of the national team, shook hands for a group photo, and the Milan Golden Boy also received the 1969 Golden Ball Award. Who is second behind Rivera? It was Riva! The Italian top scorer may be hoping to win the 1970 Ballon d'Or with the momentum of a league title and a good performance at the World Cup in Mexico. In the end, Italy reached the final in the World Cup, and in the Ballon d'Or ranking that year, Riva ranked third, one step away from his dream.
Unfortunately, this is also the last glory of this sharpshooter. On 31 October 1970, during a friendly match against Austria, Riva was seriously injured by the opposing defender's tackle and never recovered. At the time, the players were not yet 26 years old, and if he had not been injured, would he and Cagliari have created more possibilities in the coming years? However, there is no if, Riva's national team was seriously injured this time, but also directly announced that the golden Cagliari came to the inflection point. In 1973, Juventus, despite Riva's injury history, wanted to introduce riva to the Champions League, but Washiari's head, Arica, said serically: "1 billion lira? I also want Betga, Capello and Gentile! Juve President Boniperti was furious.
The shrewd Arica made a mistake. If the stars are shot in time, the glory days of the Sardinians may continue for some time. Eventually, Struggling with injuries, Riva was unable to return to his peak and ended his career once and for all after another serious injury in early 1976. In the same year, Cagliari returned to Serie B with a bottom-of-league record, ending a glorious history. A few years later, Cagliari had its ups and downs, enjoying stars like Francisco and Zola, and at the beginning of the season, under the leadership of manager Malan, he reached third place in the league, overshadowing Atalanta.
However, Cagliari's surge at the beginning of the season seemed to flash like the team's sudden arrival of the league title in 1970. Subsequently, the team won in a wave of consecutive wins, with no momentum, and Malan also blamed the class. Team president Giulini is full of expectations for the new coach Zengjia, but after the former Inter Milano took office, not a single game was played, and the new crown epidemic suddenly arrived. A while ago, Giulini was interviewed and said that the virus will also hit the team: in the post-new crown era, the team's revenue will certainly not be as good as before in the short term, like Nainggolan, who has performed well this season, due to the high salary, it is basically impossible to stay next season.
At the beginning of the season, Cagliari once made a big deal in Serie A. But then the team went on a wave of consecutive winless games, and the momentum was completely lost.
The road to great power is full of thorns and past glory, fortunately, Sardinian fans have their slogans and beliefs: a land, a nation, a team. Such strong geopolitical feelings, like the miracle of Cagliari's next gram half a century ago, are the most precious things of modern football.