It had never happened to see the coach of the national team in the stands of a stadium during the youth finals of Italian football. It happened yesterday evening when, on the occasion of the Under 17 Serie A and B final between Roma and Inter, Roberto Mancini sat down at the Del Conero in Ancona, applauding the deeds of Italian football promises. The final was won by Roma who, beating Inter 2-1, won the Scudetto, the eighth in the category (Inter’s record equaled) and the second in a row for the Giallorossi born in 2006, who a year ago imposed in the Under 16. The leitmotif of this success is Manuel Nardozi who, exactly like last year in the final against Milan, scored the decisive goal.
‘The opponent’, Marco Tardelli tells Roberto Mancini
Emotions and goals that brought Roberto Mancini’s youth back to mind. “I played this final in ’82, a Bologna-Bari that makes me travel back in time” he said during the half-time between Roma and Inter. The final, which in 1982 was still played back and forth, saw Mancini as the protagonist: the current coach was decisive with a brace in the 4-1 win in the first match which secured the result before the 1-0 victory in Puglia, which decreed the tricolor.
Roberto Mancini at the beginning
A season, that 81-82, very significant for Italian football, but also for a very young Roberto Mancini who, in addition to the Allievi scudetto with Bologna, made his debut in Serie A not yet seventeen. On 6 September 1981, in fact, in a Bologna-Reggina match in the Coppa Italia, Mancini entered the second half in place of Chiorri, tasting the grass of the “grown-ups” for the first time. A week later, Serie A arrived, in a 1-1 Bologna-Cagliari match: at 16 years and 10 months, Mancini became the sixth youngest player ever to make his debut in the top flight. Even his first goal was precocious: on 4 October 1981, in the 78th minute of Como-Bologna, he scored the 2-2 goal with which the rossoblù managed to tie the match. In that season Mancini played all 30 matches, scoring 9 goals overall. Certainly other times, other football, but the future of Italian football has always passed, and history teaches Mancini.