With 10 minutes to go, the balls disappeared from the sidelines in Sassari at 1-1, the final bow to a Cesena that still had some and wanted to win. “Vanni Sanna” has a rather enthusiastic crowd and if first place had still been to be assigned, yesterday there would have been a great bedlam, but instead Cesena has been in Serie B for almost a month and it’s time for them to start explaining what they want to do from great. Winning the championship on March 30 is a nice advantage, as long as it is exploited. We need to talk about Toscano and the youth sector, about new figures in the management staff up to the relationships to be cultivated or not with Campus Cesena Sport, possibly without theatrics made of one step forward and two steps back, given that Bruno Piraccini has made a proposal serious (building something together for young people) which deserves at least a serious response. The agenda is quite full and shouldn’t gather dust, because the level of Serie B has risen and few championships like Serie B punish those who make the wrong strategy along the way.
Serie B should never be underestimated and Cesena’s journey par excellence reminds us of this, dated 18 June 2000. That Sunday, the team has been in retreat for three days at the Tosco Romagnolo hotel in Bagno di Romagna after the defeat (3-1). in the first leg of the salvation play-off against Pistoiese. Mario Manzo was sent off and will miss the return match at Manuzzi due to disqualification: he asks to go on retreat with his teammates and decides that he will play that match his way, alone.
«On Sunday I walk from Bagno di Romagna to Cesena».
Shoes, shorts, blue polo shirt with the seahorse emblem, pouch around the waist with the phone and a 33 cl plastic bottle to fill at the fountains. He sets off at 7 in the morning: from the hotel to his house near the center of Cesena it’s 55 kilometres. Off we go.
Bagno di Romagna, San Piero in Bagno, Sarsina. Mario Manzo proceeds at a good pace and retraces an adventure that began very badly. In the first few months he doesn’t have any and asks Corrado Benedetti to stay on the sidelines to regain his form, then Alberto Cavasin arrives on the bench and that graying full-back who let a tricycle pass him becomes “Mario Manzo who plays better than Pelè”, inspiring a hyperbolic chorus of the curve never heard before.
Montepetra, Montecastello, Saracen Market. While there are those among the cyclists on Sunday who recognize him, Mario Manzo walks and wears himself out, they repeat that he cannot end up like this. In that 1999-2000 season with Nicoletti on the bench he also scored his first career brace at the age of 32 in a Cesena-Monza 3-3. It was December 12, 1999: it was 1-3, Cesena was with ten men (Pancu sent off in the first half) and they moved the match to 3-3 by scoring two goals. The good thing is that at 3-3 Cesena are still down to nine men (red for Baronchelli) but a little longer and they go on to win, supported by a support of supreme ignorance as only Manuzzi can have in certain matches. And in the interview room not even Manzo disappoints: «I play Fantasy Football with my friends, today I lose because my opponent deployed Manzo in defense».
Crossroads Montegelli, Borello, San Carlo. Mario Manzo thinks back to his expulsion in the first leg of the play-off in Pistoia and his solitary despair in the shower, where he bursts into tears and his friend Beppe Baronchelli tries to console him. He walks on the hot asphalt of the Umbro Casentinese with a nursery of blisters starting to bloom on his feet, but from his point of view it is always better than going to the stadium.
San Vittore, Borgo Paglia, Cesena. It took him about 11 hours to get home, the Manuzzi match started at 5pm and he listened to the end on the radio. After about twenty minutes Davide Cangini scored, the midfielder who had to postpone his wedding for the survival play-offs and will get married the day after that match. Cesena wins 1-0 but it’s not enough and they are relegated to C1. Manzo turns off the radio, at the moment he even thinks about getting drunk alone, but at least that if he spares him, he has already punished himself enough. He was in love with Cesena and had a guilt to atone for, throwing himself into a solitary mission like Forrest Gump which over time he regretted, because he too had to stay in a group while he rushed.
That championship offered the worst possible ending, but Mario Manzo left a memory that is also a lesson: the stadium groaning in pain against an unpresentable player sometimes solves a need (life sucks, at least I let off steam with Pancu or Ghezzal) , but the stadium that elects a player who is climbing the ladder as an idol, that is real football. Mario Manzo was first a vent, then he taught us to be wary of hasty judgments: about a footballer, about a work colleague, about ourselves. Never underestimate the value of effort and commitment: even the worst of the full-backs if he manages not to give up can transform into Mario Manzo who plays better than Pelè. And when Manuzzi realizes it and applauds the recovery, it remains a one-of-a-kind stadium.
Tags: Cesena Sassaris homage Mario Manzos lesson
