Football from Belluno mourns the great “Bepi” Bertoldin

Born in 1934, formerly in Belluno, he trained generations of children at Cavarzano

BELLUNO

Football from Belluno mourns Bepi Bertoldin. A man who has represented – and will continue to represent – a great little piece of the history of football in our home passed away yesterday evening.

Born in 1934, Girolamo Bertoldin, known to all as Bepi, was born in Borgo Prà and here he started kicking a rag ball.

Then there were the “Mischievous Don Bosco” and, at 17, the landing in Belluno. Especially as a midfielder, he was able to give solidity and impulse to the Gialloblù midfield until the end of the Sixties, making himself appreciated in the fourth series, first category and series D.

In the mid-fifties there was also a Sicilian interlude: a year at Nissena, the team from Caltanissetta, a team that was then active in the fourth series.

Then, the career – better, the mission – as a coach: in the youth teams of Belluno, at Sedico but, above all, in Cavarzano. In the Giallorossi he followed the Esordienti for a season, then only and exclusively the Pulcini.

“When I started with this category, I saw that it was an extraordinary thing to work with the little ones,” he told us in an interview a couple of years ago. «With them I work as an old coach of mine, Enrico Colombari, on attention to detail, starting from the position and movements of the foot: neck, instep, instep, toe. And then to hit the head. Head that must be used not only to hit the ball but also and above all to think and reason ».

For thirty years Bepi worked in Cavarzano. An extraordinary attachment, until the end. So much so that he wanted to wear the suit of the Giallorossi company on his last earthly journey.

“We arrived in Cavarzano together and we worked together for thirty years,” says the president of Limana Cavarzano, Claudio Sella. “Bepi did a lot for our boys, he was and will be an example for everyone”.

“Despite the difference in age, we were like brothers,” said Enrico Basso, together with Bertoldin, coach of the small Giallorossi. “I worked with him for 23 years. We all loved him ».

In the evening, the heartfelt greeting from Ora Zanin, provincial president of the FIGC, also arrived, with a photo of him with Bertoldin after having rewarded him in a youth tournament.