Enzo Ebosse, Udinese defender, was born and raised in Amiens. And in the club of the French city, known for the Notre-Dame cathedral, he spent the formative years of the youth sector. It was 2005 when he entered it: he was 6 years old. He came out in 2015, sixteen and ready for new goals. The 23-year-old Franco-Cameroonian is tied by a thin thread to a Pordenone, a Clautan who in Friuli is remembered every time the Bianconeri face Turin. It is Revelli Ruggero Grava, center forward, player of the Grande Torino, who on May 4, 1949 lost his life in Superga together with the whole team. He also played in Amiens, a clib that is now fighting for promotion to Ligue 1.
Probably, Ebosse does not know the story of Grava, but it is not a fault: it belongs to a very distant era, although in its development it has very current themes. Revelli Ruggero, at Amiens, played only one season, that of 1942-1943. A year that opened the doors of “real” football to him. In France, Grava arrived there well before, in 1923, a year after his birth. He was born in Claut, son of Remo and Giovanna De Zan. After the First World War, at the insistence of his wife, Remo moved beyond the Alps, in search of fortune. The family joined him, with Ruggero becoming Roger. Saint Ouen, now incorporated in Paris, was the base of the family. And the Clautan proved to have a talent for sport. The Kleber center, with its Society of Preparation and Sports Education, represented his “cradle”, where he practiced swimming, boxing and football. In 1939 the Kleber center closed, but the problem turned into an opportunity. Grava went to As Roma, a team of Italians residing in Paris. He showed off, earning the call from Amiens. He was 20 years old. Over time he went to reinforce Olympique Roubaix-Tourcoing, with which he won the French top-flight in 1947. He was a strong center-forward: his path was marked.
In 1948 the first trip to Italy to perfect the agreement with the Grande Torino, the formation of the invincibles who was looking for a deputy from Gabetto. Grava played three matches: two friendlies, in which he scored a goal, a Serie A match, played with Genoa. On 4 May 1949, returning by plane from that “cursed” friendly match in Portugal played with Benfica, the plane crashed on the Superga hill. On board the entire Torino team. His body was transported to the court of honor of the Parc des Princes and now rests in the cemetery of Saint Ouen.
The myth of Grava has endured and resists the wear and tear of time, especially in Claut. The sports field bears her name. And those who have visited him remember the plaques dedicated to him, especially the one commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Superga accident. Franco Giordani, a Clautan singer-songwriter, dedicated a song to him in dialect: Revelli. “He left de la mont per èse a champion, no one already had it”, says a verse: starting from the mountain to become, nobody takes it away. “And this is precisely the aspect that makes us Clautans most proud: despite the difficulties, starting from humble origins, Ruggero managed to become a champion”, says the mayor of Claut Gionata Sturam.
Grava would have turned a century old this year. There will be initiatives to honor his memory. Odile, her sister, who passed away in November 2021 at the age of 97, would be especially proud of it. She lived in France, but she had never severed the umbilical cord that bound her to Claut. “You spoke our dialect better than Italian,” Sturam remembers smiling. At every initiative she made in memory of her brother, she was always informed of her. And she attended, as long as her health allowed him. When she was unable to be there, she let it be known in a letter. They are stories to tell. The legend must continue.