TREVISO. Diego Bonavina is now a successful lawyer and politician. It was clear that he would become someone since he was playing: in that Real Treviso he was the mind. With the shirt no. 8, the one who was once on the left midfielder, organized the action, had a vision of the game and occasionally aimed for the net. Modern midfielder, we would say today: he came from Mantua, he had also been to Giorgione. And above all he was among the great protagonists of three consecutive promotions: 1994-1997. Who does not remember that Treviso which in three years passed from Interregionale to Serie B, led by Bepi Pillon? A miraculous combination of cells, a mosaic created by the never quite late president Giovanni Caberlotto and the ds Renato Favero. We remember them, those fantastic players. Andrea Pierobon, essential goalkeeper, Checco Maino “el peà”, a fury on the right wing where he made a “chain” with the elf Alex De Poli, the bomber Pippo Florio, the handsome Loris Pradella, reserve for Samp di Mancini-Vialli, Andrea “Boscoletto” Boscolo, midfield dynamo, Stefano Lombardi, strong defender, Ezio Rossi, defensive central with an Olympic calm, Lele Pasa, top-class playmaker, the piston Beppe Margiotta. The memory of that legendary Treviso cannot sharpen the regret of seeing his heirs languish in the promotion, moreover without having almost never played this year.
Bonavina, do you still follow football personally?
«Of course: for me it is above all a passion that never sets, then I take care of it professionally. It is always easy to talk later, you should get to the beginning of the path to understand the meaning of a decision. I have always been critical of the fact that everything except sport resumed, proof of this is that with sport and football stopped we are back in orange. But I also understand that with all the scientific committees that are there, stopping was a legitimate choice, even if I contested it from the start. The damage was enormous. And not only for those who do it as a job but also for the thousands of young people and their families. I believe that the only way out is to get vaccinated: when there are doses for everyone we will get out of this nightmare ».
The club of a rich provincial capital today in football just can’t take off. Why?
“There is also a good deal of bad luck. I don’t remember other clubs that have had so many failures, but right now that we had finally come to see the light, with a new and stable club, clear ideas and a team built to win, everything stops. Also because staying still involves sensational damage also to commercial activity: how does a company, already in crisis due to the pandemic, want to invest in football? ».
Here all other sports thrive, not football.
«When we were starting to follow a certain path there was Benetton with basketball, volleyball and rugby and in Formula One. Football has always been the “weak” sport, we should rebuild for the new generations that enthusiasm that our Treviso had created ».
Are you in contact with anyone?
«We are always a family: we feel, see each other. We have grown old but that is our spirit. And every now and then we tell each other some episodes of that wonderful adventure lived in the Biancoceleste jersey. I believe that of the three the best promotion was the first, the one from the Interregional to the D, the beginning of a crazy journey. Penultimate of the championship, in Trieste at the home of the leaders and forced to win. And we won in the 85th minute with a goal from Pradella on my assist (7 May 1995, at Rocco, Bressan’s free kick, Bonavina’s header and Pradellone’s head, ed): Pillon had made us try that throughout the championship. scheme but in vain, he succeeded exactly in the decisive match… If we had drawn it, there would have been nothing else ».
But what was magical about that group?
“It was a puzzle where each piece fit together perfectly. From the Interregionale to the B that Treviso changed only two owners. After 25 years I will reveal a detail: to build that team I put my own. I advised Favero to take Pasa, Rossi, Pradella, I knew them as extraordinary men and excellent players, I knew what they were worth. No longer children but authentic pillars ».
An unrepeatable miracle that great Treviso, or not?
«I of saints are not uncomfortable but it was something incredible. I believe that only Parma have made three consecutive promotions. I’ll tell you about this other one. I had just stopped playing with Treviso, I was at the presentation of a book that recalled those exploits. I said: “Remember that in 30 years we will still be here talking about those unrepeatable matches.” And in fact we are talking about it. Mamma mia, in the second year in Serie B after the first round we were first with 5 points ahead of the fifth ».
What happened then?
«I broke my knee, Beghetto ditto. If the company had invested in the market in January, we would not have found ourselves with a short squad. Instead we paid that way. But there was an extraordinary enthusiasm, I could have missed an empty goal that the fans applauded me so much anyway ».
The president Giovanni Caberlotto: unrepeatable too.
«He passed away on March 3, 1997, in the midst of our businesses. I remember that in the first leg with Triestina, at Tenni, we made the best performance ever. We lost 1-0 and they went to +5. On Tuesday Giovanni came to the locker room: “Guys, I think I have never seen a football like this, you have all been very good, starting with the coach. Pillon is also confirmed for next year ”. Do you understand? At the worst moment he told us that he believed it, he who had created that miracle “.