Dal Cin tells all the background of the deal that brought Zico to Udinese: the Galinho ready to return

UDINE. Dal Cin brings Zico back to Friuli: now it’s official. The occasion was the launch of the book written by the former director general of Udinese Franco Dal Cin in four hands with the journalist, our colleague, Massimo Meroi.

“Deeds and misdeeds in the world of football and beyond, one out of all has entered history”: this is the title of the work published by Aviani & Aviani. Biography that reveals anecdotes and background related to the legendary arrival of Zico in black and white, in the summer of 1983. A historic event, a milestone.

“An imperfect crime”: to define it as such, the same author of the heinous coup. Speaking yesterday at the Astoria hotel in Udine, the former manager thus introduced an exclusive three-day event in the region featuring the “Galinho”. From 2 to 4 June, five years after his last visit.

«For the Friulians – explained Dal Cin – what they lived with the Brazilian was a splendid dream. However, within just eighteen months, it vanished. Nobody knows what happened, not even Zico. I therefore wanted to answer these questions: to reveal the reasons why the story was suddenly interrupted ».

To push the fresh writer to action, therefore, the need of a people, a variegated group of fans: on the one hand football lovers, Udinese who in his time had the opportunity to witness the exploits of “Galinho” in first person, on the other the younger and more social audience, audience in which the memory of the Rio champion lives thanks to images, videos, posts.

Essentially, you remember: «To bring me to remember all the vicissitudes and to convince me to tell them in a book, in particular, was Renato Giampaoli, a great Udinese fan. A chance meeting, which took place in Lignano Sabbiadoro, binds us.

His insistence on wanting to know the facts behind the Zico affair, why it ended badly, somehow convinced me ».

From the stimulus, then, the passage to the drafting. And to an equally fundamental step: “My daughter convinced me to invite Zico, to rotate a series of meetings around him and the important characters who have made the history of football.” After all, how to exclude the main inspirer, the muse with the number 10? And how to deprive his fans of enjoying it once again live? “The hope, in fact, is that the fans will participate, that there will be an exchange of feelings between them and the various actors involved”.

Involved in the concrete realization of the project as ghost writer, as well as a pen sensitive to the subject, Massimo Meroi then paid homage to those present with the memory of his “Galinho”. Hero, darling, scudetto man: «We thought we could win it with him. When he arrived in Udine I was 16, I could hardly believe it. With him here began a new era on the sporting level: telling this story, therefore, made me relive those moments ».

Several unpublished episodes reported, nine months required for the impression of the whole on paper. «Working on this work was a personal and human gratification. I consider myself lucky to have accompanied Franco, under the supervision of my teacher Ido Cibischino ».

Guide for many, journalist who wrote the preface to the book. And historical memory of Juventus.

«Remembering history, remembering the past – concluded the publisher Giovanni Aviani – is fundamental. If we lose our roots we lose our essence. This is as true in football as in life ».