SANREMO. Everyone was waiting for the super champion. As per tradition, Amadeus wanted a great sportsman among the guests of Sanremo. And voila. Matteo Berrettini will take the Ariston stage for the debut evening of this Sanremone. The Roman tennis player, the only Italian to have played in the Wimbledon final, fresh from the Australian Open where he fought in the semifinals against Rafael Nadal, is the first name in the world of sport to arrive at the Festival. In fact, it is not certain that there are no others.
However, it is unlikely that Berrettini can “behave” better than Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who last year was the perfect shoulder to the conductor between successful gags and memorable unexpected events. As before the third evening of the Festival, when Ibra was stuck on the motorway due to an accident and was given a ride by a motorcyclist. A scene from a film, which the AC Milan player also documented with a video (which he then took to the stage as proof). An unexpected show, but certainly impossible to forget.
In short, Ibra at the Festival was a true protagonist: ironic, precise, charismatic. Among his best moments the “duet” – also singing – with Mihajlovic in which the AC Milan player talked about their friendship. Ibra and Sinisa met with a head in 2005 – Sinisa was in Inter, Ibra in Juve – then they became great friends in the season played together by the Nerazzurri.
In 2020, however, it was the year of Cristiano Ronaldo. Georgina had been chosen by Ama as the female face for the Festival. In the front row, there was also Cr7. More than Ronaldo, however, remains the memory of Georgina’s sensual tango, who after the performance reached her sweetheart in the audience and gave him a nice kiss.
Who knows if Berrettini will take out his racket or invent something different from what Novak Djokovic did two years ago. At the time, the Serbian tennis player was the protagonist of a funny sketch with Fiorello as the perfect tennis teacher.
We should not forget the walker Alex Schwazer, who told his story at the Ariston. The disqualification for doping, the conviction, the appeals to the courts: a personal epic that Ama wanted to give space to. Touch and run, on the other hand, for Federica Pellegrini and Alberto Tomba, who also took the stage last year as ambassadors for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics.