The 7 September 1924 The Genoa Cricket and Football Club wins its ninth championship, the second in a row, won by an amazing team that seems destined to dominate for a long time to come. The following year, however, the unlikely five finals with Bologna interrupted the series, denied Genoa the star and sent it towards an unpredictable downward slope. One hundred years after that last championship, there is only one certainty: if the results have often been lacking, the passion of the fans, handed down for generations, has never waned.
A story, or rather, many stories, which Gessi Adamoli and Alberto Puppo they cross paths in theirs The Great Genoa – From the Invincibles to the stolen star, the epic of a myth, created in collaboration with Genoa 1893 ETS Foundation, which provided stunning period images, which it will be distributed free of charge on Saturday 27 April, with our newspaper, and presented on Tuesday 23 April at 11am at the Genoa Museum, in via Porto Antico 4. Genoa CEO Andres Blazquez and the editor-in-chief of Genoa will talk to the authors Republic Genoa, Luigi Pastore.
And there will be no shortage of arguments, for what, without risking presumption, can be defined as a history book. But also, and above all, of stories. Because the journey of the two journalists aims to reconnect with the sporting, but also human, events of the protagonists of those years. inevitably, they intersect with those of an extraordinarily restless period. Suffice it to say that the legendary Genoa of the Invincibles, the one who won the championship without losing a match, triumphed in the final at Marassi with Pro Vercelli on 14 May 1922. Five months later, the black shirts marched on Rome and diverted the course of the country. Those same black shirts that will decisively influence the endless match against Bologna in 1925 which, between phantom goals, pitch invasions, intimidation of the referee, gunshots and street demonstrations, will allow the team dear to the hierarch Arpinati to steal the star’s scudetto goes to Genoa.
Yes, the championship. The rossoblù were the first to be able to show it off on their shirts, in 1924. This is well known. Less than inventing that epochal symbol was an Italian poet famous for his verses, his extravagances and more or less daring exploits. Read to believe.
But what is striking, and often moving, are the lives of the protagonists of those years. Young footballers who are no longer pioneers but not yet professionals, who often divide their time between the pitch and a few bags to unload in the port or the desk of a bank.
The first major scandal linked to a transfer market that was forbidden at the time exploded right in front of a bank counter. In the center are two footballers who will later be the pillars of the championship seasons, stolen from the Andrea Doria. Caught by the Dorian cashier with a prisoner’s check. The rivalry is already heated, but in the end fair play wins. The same doesn’t happen in the water: Genoa and Andrea Doria give each other a thorough beating. But it may happen that the multifaceted Luigi Burlando, water polo player of Doria, finds himself clashing with the opponents of the Genoa team for which Luigi Burlando as a footballer is registered. Maybe remembering that he is also a savate champion.
Tags: grande Genoa Repubblica book free newsstands newspaper Saturday April
