Panini stickers, the unpublished Vendrame-Rizzato gaffe on the album from 50 years ago

Christmas is approaching and the usual countdown of collectors and simple sticker enthusiasts begins. As happens every year, since 1961, Panini is in fact about to publish the highly anticipated Footballers album. The 2017-18 edition will be the 57th collection produced in Italy by the historic company from Modena. In over half a century of life, with thousands and thousands of stickers printed, they can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand printing errors most sensational committed by Panini. The latest to be unearthed is due these days to Emmanuel Cat, a journalist with a passion for football of the past and, of course, also for stickers of which he is an avid collector, who broke the news with a detailed post on his Facebook page.

It is a "gaffe" committed exactly 50 years ago. In the'1967-68 edition dei Calciatori results in an exchange of person: in the Serie A pages of the album concerning Spal, the last sticker is dedicated to "Gildo Rizzato”, complete with personal data (born in Montagnana (Pd) on 2-2-1948), but in reality the person immortalized in the photo is a teammate of his, “Ezio Vendrame“. An oversight that has remained blatantly unpublished for all this time, if you think that Vendrame was and still is a cover character, acclaimed and revered, first as a sublime player, then as a poet, writer and musician, with dozens and dozens of articles ("L'Avvenire", the newspaper of the Italian bishops, on the occasion of his 70th birthday last November 21st paid homage to him with a long article calling him the "Pasolini of the goal") and books dedicated to him all over the world . The last one was released last May even in Argentina, where a chapter was reserved for him in a volume on the 22 craziest players in the history of football, alongside players of the caliber of Eric Cantona, Garrincha, Socrates, George Best or René Higuita.

Until the discovery of the Vendrame-Rizzato affair, they only knew each other others three cases of mistaken identity. In the Panini collection of 1973-74 the figurine of Giuliano Manfredi, Parma goalkeeper in Serie B, actually depicts Mirko Benevelli. In the collection 1975-76 the figurine of Robert Pruzzo, bomber of Genoa in B, is represented by the big moustached face of Sergio Rossetti; Panini will notice the mistake and will produce the new figurine with the "real" Pruzzo and so both images that are now highly sought after by collectors went on the market. In the collection 1980-81 in Cagliari, in Serie A, there is Claudius Azzali, but the figurine portrays Marco ricci. So the "gaffe" revealed by Gatto, since it concerns the 1967-68 championship, must be considered the first that Panini has stumbled upon since it started marketing the football collections.

While practically everything is known about Vendrame, as mentioned, there is little news about Gildo Rizzato. His career, after that experience at Spal, took place in the lower leagues (Empoli, Triestina, Sangiovannese, Monselice) and therefore he no longer had other opportunities to appear on any album. By way of "compensation" Gatto interviewed him to be told both about his football past but above all the story of mistaking the person. Today Raised he is an esteemed one entrepreneur which has been exporting since 1987 bicycles all over the world with his company Gr Bike based in Padua. Furthermore, for 24 years he has been president of theAbano Football, a team that plays in Serie D. “The story of the ghost sticker? All the fault of the military service - explained Rizzato -. When the Panini guys came to take pictures for the album, I wasn't with the Spal teammates, but in the barracks to carry out the lever. The photographer took his shots, took a random photo and entered my personal data underneath. Vendrame and I were both reserves, we weren't famous and we both had the role of forward. It was therefore a venial mistake that of Panini, they simply confused us. In any case, no problem, of course there is still a bit of disappointment because it was the only opportunity to end up on the players' album…”.

Rizzato revealed that they spoke with Vendrame about the affair at the time Lots of Laughs. “I remained friends with him – he added -, I went to the presentation of a book by him and then I often saw him play here in the area, between Vicenza and Padua. The most paradoxical thing is that in that 1967-68 season I made seven appearances and Ezio not even one: but he had his photo in the album and I didn't". Unfortunately Rizzato's top-level career ended the following season when he tore knee ligaments and menisci in a Coppa Italia match against Roma. In football, however, he stayed there, even with a position as president. “I enjoy myself with Abano, I especially like focusing on the youth sector. The team finished third last year, but this year we are last in the standings. But I don't get angry – commented Rizzato -: I just have to turn the page of the newspaper with the ranking and… we are first!”.