Mission accomplished: if it is true that those who die continue to live in the memory of those who knew them, yesterday on Campus Matteo Cerato was truly alive and present. Alongside his father Andrea and mother Irene, but above all among his classmates from the Maupas primary school in Vicofertile and his teammates from the Cus Parma football team present in large numbers at the roll call.
Emotion and smiles
The opportunity to remember Matteo, who suddenly passed away at just 10 years old last January, was the meeting with Luigi Garlando, leading correspondent of the «Gazzetta dello Sport» and writer of children’s books, in particular of the «Gol » with the «Cipolline» team which was very popular among young and very young people. At the beginning, Andrea, Matteo’s father, recalled that «he loved reading very much and had learned to read in the «Gazzetta dello Sport» and was also very passionate about the “Onions”. And we thought that a meeting with Luigi Garlando could be a gift for those who shared many happy moments with Matteo and also a way to talk about what was a great interest of his.”
The «Chipollini»
Introduced by Andrea Del Bue, Luigi Garlando immediately knew how to establish a particular feeling with the very young people who filled room A of the La Grande farm, made available by Cus Parma. «Books – he began – make you fly and go into another life. A unique magic that also gives greater freedom of choice to those who read a lot.” Garlando explained the origins of Gol! and of the name “Cipolline”: «For passion I have always followed youth football matches. And so I came up with the idea of writing books by exploiting on the one hand the knowledge acquired through my work as a journalist and on the other the desire to bring kids stories of football in which the protagonist is fair play. As for “Cipolline”, the name derives from the Argentine “Cebollitas”, the youth football category corresponding to our Pulcini brought to fame by Diego Maradona».
The “idol” Boninsegna
A barrage of questions then came from the audience, testifying to a meeting where time literally flew by. And so the boys discovered that «my idol as a boy was Roberto Boninsegna, the striker of my dreams as a very young Inter fan who I still meet a couple of times a year». Between Messi and Ronaldo, “I choose Messi because he doesn’t just score goals but he creates play”, and among the active players I choose “De Bruyne, for the order and rationality he gives to his game, like Pirlo in the past”. And again «Maldini was the best defender in the world, while Buffon was the greatest goalkeeper ever».
The journalist and the writer
The most particular moment he experienced in his career was «the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, with the contrast between the magnificence of ultra-modern stadiums and favelas with starving people just a few dozen meters away». Garlando explained that «in me the writer (over 100 books under his belt, ed.) is a friend of the journalist, because the characters I have written in the books are born from my work». Vincenzo Pincolini, historic athletic trainer for Parma, Milan and the national team, also brought his contribution and Garlando concluded his chat by saying that «a writer for children must enter their language. And I used my daughter as a conduit.” The meeting ends with requests for autographs and a few selfies and, yes, in the end we can really say that Matteo was alive and present in the thoughts of all his friends: mission accomplished, in fact.
Gian Luca Zurlini
