There is a very funny article, published in 2008 by Newspaper but inspired by another article from Reformist of the day before, which collects all the prefaces to other people’s books written (up to that point) by Walter Veltroni, the former mayor of Rome and first secretary of the Democratic Party. Veltroni and the autobiography of Barack Obama, Veltroni and José Zapatero, Veltroni and Giorgio Gaber, etc. But also – another very Veltronian phrase – Veltroni in the world of sport: a preface by him opens Now I’ll make a spoonFrancesco Totti’s autobiography published in 2006, as well as And they call them disabled. Stunning stories of difficult, courageous livesa collection of stories from Paralympic sport written in 2007 by the former director of the Gazzetta dello Sport Candido Cannavò. Still remaining on the sporting theme, but bringing us closer to the present day, Veltroni also created the preface of Leonardo Bonucci’s book My friend Leoreleased in 2016 by Baldini+Castoldi.
Walter Veltroni’s latest book was released on Monday 10 June in Solferino, Numbers 10. Meetings with the greats of football, and naturally this time Veltroni couldn’t write a preface alone. Thus the situation was reversed and the signature that appears on the cover, in addition to that of the author, comes from the world of football: Thiago Motta, the now former coach of Bologna betrothed to Juventus, Veltroni’s favorite team.
«During my childhood, my father’s stories about football focused on two topics: the facts related to his favorite team, Palmeiras, and the plays, the matches and everything that concerned a single player, namely Edson Arantes do Nascimento … Pelé”, thus begins the preface of the former Italian-Brazilian midfielder, published by Corriere della Sera. «And then we debated, or rather: with personal warmth and affection he debated, on how far he considered sacred monsters such as Rivelino, Rivera, Cruijff, Zico to be far from Pelé’s level; players who marked footballing eras and who made millions of fans dream and excite, but who, according to my father, were not comparable to the greatness of Pelé.”
Furthermore, in his writing, Thiago Motta denies the cliché according to which the number 10s have now disappeared from football: «It is now a common idea to consider that today’s football, due to the evolution imposed by technology and the need for a rhythm of increasingly high play, is an enemy of creativity and in particular that of number 10s: I don’t agree. In fact, every coach ideally aspires to build a team that collectively reproduces the same emotions, the same dreams, the same passions that a number 10 is able to convey, touching the hearts of the fans. For this reason, a number 10 with that talent would find space again in today’s football. I am equally convinced that other players will establish themselves on the football scene, continuing to pass on the tradition of the number 10, changing the course of a match with a play, enhancing the love of millions of fans, with a technical and elegant touch, an invention which will recall to the memory of all of us the deeds of their great predecessors, which are told in this book.”
