Bologna, 25 April 2024 – “In ‘Dark Bologna’ , my latest book, I imagined everything: even that the Garisenda could tragically collapse on a tourist’s head. But I confess that a Bologna in the Champions League I would never have imagined it.” From San Donato at most you can glimpse the Dall’Ara: certainly not the Parco dei Principi or the Camp Nou. Danilo Masotti, writer, soul and popularizer of Bolognese, lives in San Donato and, even if he has a long eye and sees certain things well in advance, he could think of anything except starting to get excited about football at 55 years old. And indeed now that his umarells are about to celebrate their twentieth birthday of life there is a Bologna that flies, in Italy and Europe, towards unexpected shores.
Masotti, nothing but construction sites: today the umarells are talking about Thiago and Zirkzee.
“Not just them: finally I can talk about it too. Since I opened up to football a few years ago and set foot at Dall’Ara I discovered a new world.”
Thanks to Motta’s Bologna?
“No, my son Ludovico. Five years ago he started playing for San Donato, now he’s a striker and scores a lot of goals. This forced me to put myself in the shoes of the father of a young footballer who follows the own son. I take him to training, I pick him up, I accompany him on away games, I follow all the matches.”
And never at Dall’Ara?
“From this year also at the Dall’Ara, thanks to the discounted tickets that Bologna distributes to the clubs in the province. I must say that this Bologna seen live is a spectacle, as well as my luck: Ludovico dances with his friends and I enjoy a squadron.”
Is this Bologna a Champions League show?
“At this point yes: I think that next year we will play together with the big teams in Europe.”
Don’t say that you don’t know at least those.
“I know them all right. As a showman I like postcards: Haaland and Mbappé are two great postcards.”
And the Bologna postcards?
“I put Zirkzee in first place. Then comes Calafiori and I also add Skorupski. For me they are all Champions League postcards.”
Thiago is also a nice card. By the way: the umarells are wondering if he will stay in June.
“I ask myself that too and I hope the answer is yes. I would like him to stay, but I don’t know how a coach’s heart works.”
In ‘Dark Bologna’ he tells the story of 50 tourists who, before dying, appreciate the beauty of the city. Do you have any idea how many new tourists or fans could arrive under the Towers for the Champions League?
“Yes, I realize it and I am aware of it. And I am already ready to fill, unfortunately for them, two more books with dark stories.”
Meanwhile, Bologna 30 has become a reality, while there is a Bologna that is traveling at full speed.
“I venture this proposal: the points that the team will achieve between now and the end of the championship will be the new speed limit, at night and on wide roads.”
Note that, to be certain of the Champions League, you have to reach 70…
“I repeat: at night and in the wide streets. Because during the day and in the crowded streets it’s almost thirty.”
We can’t help but ask the inventor of the construction site umarells if the construction site of the new Dall’Ara will ever see the light of day.
“That construction site will start one day: in the meantime I console myself with the construction site in Piazza Mickiewicz. But today the whole of Bologna is a construction site: I’m starting to think that it’s an entertainment policy for umarells”.
