Football as a tool for socialization and integration, able to improve, through fun, the psycho-physical health and quality of life of girls and boys with physical-motor, cognitive and affective, relational, emotional and behavioral disabilities. This is the aim of Insuperabili, a non-profit organization that has just celebrated its tenth birthday, born in Turin in 2012 from the commitment of two friends, Davide Leonardi and Ezio Grosso, who wanted to fulfill the desire to play of a friend with Down syndrome and which today has 17 locations throughout Italy and involves over 650 athletes.
Giorgio Chiellini, you are the historical testimonial of Insuperabili: what effect does it have on ten candles?
«I am happy, excited and proud: it is a reality that I have seen born and grow, which still has many goals to achieve. It is nice, when possible, to lend a hand to trusted and capable people who do good, in this case to disabled children: with Davide, the president, the feeling was immediate and a friendship was established. Mine, however, is a presence: real, important work is done by him and by those around him ».
The support of famous people like you is actually essential …
“What we can do is to give visibility to the project, guarantee its seriousness and help support it: moving forward is not easy, income from state bodies is less and less, we try to overcome difficulties together and help these young people: I am tied to many from personal relationships, some of “my” children today are teenagers or men ».
In the face of commitments like yours, we always tend to think about what a public figure does for children. What does he receive instead?
«To me, simply, the relationship with the Insuperabili opens the heart: in a world that goes at two thousand an hour, it allows you to really understand the important things in life. Sometimes it’s special just to have a chat, it doesn’t take much to feel changed inside. With little, in our role, we can do a lot, but every day we receive a lot ».
You are the captain of a great team of testimonials: from Buffon to Donnarumma, from Gama to Gomez, from Ranocchia to De Silvestri. The world of football is not so muffled and superficial …
“Sometimes we are a bit intimidated, there are many projects and someone has happened to associate their name with initiatives that have turned out to be soap bubbles. Our world is much less superficial than we think, often we do charity in silence. In other cases, like this one, it is instead necessary to show oneself to make a reality known and guarantee the solidity of a project “
Insuperabili started from scratch …
«It was a tiny reality: at the first training session, ten years ago, there were three coaches, three educators and only four athletes. It is now the leader in Italy for methodology, has 17 offices and many European connections. We want to grow even more while always maintaining the desire to do things, the passion, the joy of the first steps: the only difference is that we think in the hundreds and no longer in the dozens ».
Alongside the educational and playful aspect, there is the competitive one. In 2019, by beating “its” Juventus, the team won the Fourth Category championship, a national 7-a-side soccer tournament for athletes with cognitive-relational disabilities.
«The competition, the goals, help to improve. They are the essence of sport, the important thing is not to go extreme ».
Dten years of emotions: can you tell us an anecdote, a sentence, an event that struck you?
«The emotions are many, I tell a joke that I do not forget: when I broke my knee and I had crutches, one of the boys told me“ now you are like us, you can come and play a few games ”. In a difficult moment, nothing particularly serious in life but still a question mark for my career, that joke made me smile and also changed my point of view: reset and understand priorities ».