CAGLIARI. Cagliari relegated to B, but there is a rossoblù flag that, instead, remained in A. It is Gianluca Festa, coach of Lamia, a small team in the Greek league saved by the manager of Monserrato in the play-offs. A small sporting miracle: now Festa is returning home to enjoy the rest. Because this season he struggled and fought for three: he took the Apollo team of former rossoblù Bruno Alves in the running and then was sacked. Then, after his successor failed to get the team off the ground, they called him back. “To then exonerate myself – he says – after an internal draw with a strong team like Olympiakos with twelve elements, plus me, with Covid”.
The Odyssey seemed to be over there. But Festa found his Ithaca instead: «With the Apollo we had won two to zero against Lamia in their home. Evidently Lamia was impressed with our game. And after the second exemption, he called me ». There Festa took two revenge. The first: he sentenced his former team, the Apollo, to relegation. In the last match against Apollo, in fact, he was the Lamia coach and beat the former club: mors tua, vita mea. The second satisfaction is salvation: «A result achieved in very difficult conditions. I also had to fight and make decisions that were not easy ». A warrior on the bench like him, he has always also been on the pitch: Festa had also played with Roma and Inter. From Greece he followed his Cagliari, a former team as a player and as a coach at a distance. “The B? I was very sorry ».