Let’s be honest with a question that deep down lurks in the minds of all fans and enthusiasts: but what do the Americans have to do with Cesena Calcio?
Having asked this question, which still doesn’t have an answer and who knows if it ever will, it should however be remembered that since his arrival in Romagna John Aiello has always been the one who has always believed more than anyone in a winning Cesena and always with conviction and optimism.
Of course, he was so absent from Romagna, for a certain period it even seemed as if he had become foggy and had disappeared, but in reality from New York and New Jersey he continued to deal with Juventus matters almost daily, being in contact with the men in the field, above all with the director Fabio interno.
However, the Americans on the bridge, on December 20, 2021 when the transfer of 60% of the shares passed from the old and fantastic 30 saving shareholders to the new buyers, were actually two: John Aiello and Robert Lewis.
They seemed to be great friends and they seemed to get along well. And who knows, maybe for a while things really went like this.
Lewis, living in Pesaro, was much more present in the area than Aiello who shuttled between Cesena and the east coast of the States.
Then relations began to deteriorate to the point that Cesena seemed to belong to two masters: Robert Lewis on one side and John Aiello on the other who proceeded with different projects and ideas on two parallel lines.
In the end the battle was won by Aiello who ousted his former friend and member by introducing his brother Michael and other members and friends into the governance of the club, but this time all united. John delegated to Michael, but above all to ARCTIC.
If on the one hand the Americans had reduced in number, on the other they had multiplied, but this time all on the same wavelength.
In the end John triumphed. Indeed, it was Cesena who triumphed, but John was the one who always believed in Serie B and victory and on the unforgettable evening of Saturday 30 March he was truly the happiest of all.
In the agitated final moments after the decisive victory against Pescara definitively and indelibly sealed by Pierozzi’s goal, John was truly exhausted as if he too had played on the pitch.
He was also understandably emotional, but above all he was happy, happy, satisfied, both for having kept his word on 20 December 2021, and for having achieved the goal he had set himself, but also and above all for having given immense joy to a incomparable fans, to a warm and welcoming city, to a square that had been waiting for the return to Serie B for too long and after having suffered too much sportingly.
Cesena, Romagna and the people of Romagna enter your heart, conquer you and John was not exempt from this magical spell. And in fact the words he used after the final whistle which marked Cavalluccio’s return to the cadets came out spontaneously without filters and reflections and consequently true and sincere. He defined himself as “proud of the team and the city, happy, grateful and happy for all these people, for the fans, for the coach, for the team and for all those who work in the club who have done the bulk of the work. We we were just ‘the custodians’ of the club.” They might have seemed trivial words, but observing him and above all hearing him, they were not at all. They were words that came from the heart, full of affection, gratitude and empathy.
Towards people who until about three years ago he didn’t even know who they were and who today have instead become an important part for him and of him: all the Cesena fans that John Aiello, an almost 50-year-old Italian-American, has come to know , to appreciate and perhaps even to love. Because Cesena is like this.
The city attracts you, its atmosphere inebriates you, but its people conquer you. And you know you’ll never forget her again.
We don’t know what John Aiello’s future will be. However, we can already be reasonably certain of one fact: Cesena will never forget it. And in any case the initial question remains: what do the Americans have to do with Cesena Calcio? Someone might answer, perhaps rightly: it’s just business. But Romagna-style business, done with the heart.
