Enzo Bearzot and the shirt worn backwards

It is November 21, 1948. Inter takes the field against Livorno and the players emerge from the locker room. Then one stops and goes back. Because? What happened? Nothing serious. Simply the one with the number 5 shirt had worn it backwards, with the number on the chest instead of on the back. It is Benito Lorenzi (said Poison) who points it out to him and he, the boy, goes back into the corridor to take off and put his shirt back on. That little boy will make a career, not as a player, but sitting on the bench. Enzo Bearzot was born in Aiello del Friuli in 1927. In 1946 he was registered by Pro Gorizia, in Serie B. He saw Inter Milan and, in 1948, he was transferred to Milan. But it doesn’t last long. There are many champions in the team and he doesn’t find space. In 1951 he goes to Catania in Serie B. He doesn’t want to go there but, at a tram stop, he meets Luisa. The two get engaged, they talk about it. And they decide together: “We are getting married and going to Sicily”. We have three years left. Then, that midfielder who is also a defender, is called by Turin (in 1954) who seeks reconstruction after the Superga tragedy. He plays there for two seasons and then wants Inter back for only one year and then returns to the grenade. And here is the meeting that really changes his life. On the bench is Nereo Rocco, the “Paron”, who has just led Milan to their first victory in the Champions Cup. Rocco needs to create the group and, in Friulian, he turns to Bearzot: “What, brute mona, when do you go out and give me a hand”? (that is, when do you start giving me a hand?). “Immediately,” Enzo replies. And they entrust him with the Primavera team. From there to coach Prato and the acquaintance with Ferruccio Valcareggi who proposes him to join the ranks of the Federcalcio. Bearzot is the deputy of “uncle Uccio” at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico (to remember the “match of the century”, Italy-Germany 4-3) and, since 1977, he becomes the national team coach. Negative comments abound. “It’s that of Prato,” the newspapers write. Not only that, but the unfortunate expedition to the World Cup in Germany in 1974 does not help. Just as the injury to Gigi Riva, the Cagliari striker capable of turning every counterattack action into a goal, does not help. But Bearzot is not one who gives up. He mainly fishes in Juve (Scirea, Tardelli, Bettega, Cabrini, Causio) up to Paolo Rossi. Here the criticism becomes fierce because Rossi has been stopped for almost two years due to a suspension from football betting. So Paolo Rossi leaves for the World Cup in Spain when he has a couple of league games behind him. Nobody is willing to bet a penny on the national team at this World Cup. A memorable World Cup. The final is against Germany, we win it and Bearzot becomes a “gentleman”. On the plane back from Madrid he plays cards with the President of the Republic, Sandro Pertini. He will die in 2010, remembered by his boys in 1982, but forgotten by great football. –