And let's finally name the names of those who killed what Giovanni Arpino called the grenade "tremendism". Illustrious names of self-styled great Toro fans, who at best are guilty of having caused a heterogeneity of ends: they wanted to save him and they scuttled him. They are three: Bettino Craxi, Diego Novelli, Paolo Cantarella.
At least Craxi made us live three exciting seasons: in the standings ahead of Juve, in Europe we and they didn't ("Stay with us Gigi Maifredi" we sang in the stands scoffing at the coach of the "champagne football" who had devastated the bianconeri), the UEFA Cup final lost with two draws and an almost goal not entered by a few centimeters in the last minutes of the return leg in Amsterdam against Ajax.
Except that Gian Mauro Borsano, Craxi's friend, was too involved in the socialist Tangentopoli, he frequented his homeland prisons (where he recently returned due to the Semeraro bankruptcy) and dragged the Bull with him, whose budget he had even managed to make ends meet . It's true, he sold the jewels of the nursery, but he knew how to regenerate others and above all he knew how to buy: Martin Vasquez, Scifo, Casagrande, Fusi, Romano, Policano, just to name a few.
With the icing of Pasquale Bruno known as "O 'animal" taken from Juventus and became the most anti-Juventus of the grenade players. A mastiff that did not let Roberto Baggio touch the ball in the derbies and that the grenade fans managed to raise to third place ("Pasquale Bruno in the national team") in the ranking of the satirical newspaper Cuore on the most beautiful things in life. Only two very explicit types of heterosexual relationships preceded it.
Diego Novelli, the red mayor who managed to keep Turin without the subway for 40 years, because the tram was more "proletarian", after improbable proprietary solutions (Goveani, Calleri, Vidulich) got in the way with the single fundamental purpose to rebuild historic Philadelphia (that's Novelli, he loves "the little ancient world") and tried to get Francesco Cimminelli, a powerful entrepreneur of the Fiat related industry, a declared Juventus fan, duped with promises of shopping centers and other contracts in the area around the old stadium, to be rebuilt as a museum.
Cimminelli was already known for his contributions to the Festa dell'Unità. However, perhaps Novelli would not have made it if the CEO of Fiat, Paolo Cantarella, had not intervened with a powerful work of moral suasion towards the poor industrial supplier. Moral: Turin failed, Cimminelli failed (a hole of about 200 million), Fiat almost (then Marchionne arrived, but that's another story…).
And Cairo was, pronubo mayor Sergio Chiamparino, the post-communist who gave Turin the subway and the Winter Olympics. Cairo Urbano, born on 21 May 1957 in Masio (Alessandria), Milanese by adoption, former enfant prodige of Publitalia, founder of Cairo Communication in whose portfolio there are advertising and publishing.
Pope Urban, as he was initially called by the fans, claims to have thrown several tens of millions of euros from his wallet into Turin. He had a brilliant start and had an incredible year with Toro in Serie A and Juve in Serie B, but today the team is preparing for the third consecutive year in Serie B. "I want to sell", he has repeatedly declared. Adding: "But no one comes forward". Big lie. There were, it is true, the quaquaraquà, the most famous of which was an unidentified Cucciniello, patriarch of a family of monarchist pastry chefs from the suburbs, the suspicion of a big win in the superenalotto, the residence in a castle in Monferrato to be restored, a very approximate Italian and then… nothing. False alarm.
But in the last few months something has changed. First was Alessandro Proto Consulting, based in Switzerland, which defines itself as "one of the world's leading investment, consulting and real estate firms". Proto put ten million euros on the plate to start the negotiation, claiming to represent 6 shareholders. And Cairo? Although overwhelmed by the dispute, he said no, arguing once again that the interlocutors only wanted to advertise in the newspapers.
Two days ago La Stampa revealed the interest, with a relative offer of 25 million euros, from an American holding company, Soave Enterprises, with a turnover of one and a half billion dollars in 2010, interested in landing in Europe in the sports world. Cairo has retorted that it is a "big lie". From America they replied that it was all true, but that the president of Toro had relaunched with unsustainable figures: 50 million in B, 70 in A. So we asked ourselves: why does he say one thing and scratch the other way around?
According to experts, the Bull is still needed in Cairo: it cuts his profits in the consolidated financial statements (11 million losses in 2010), indirectly gives him advertising clients and lets him cultivate his great hope: promotion to Serie A is worth 40-50 million rights television. At this point he would have in his hands a jewel worth 100-150 million. Will he make it? Well, so far, the disappointments have been many, too many. Word of a fan, who however always hopes that it will be the right time.
