It is easy and at the same time difficult to experience first-hand the popular passion for a team, a sportsman or an athlete.
But it was sunny and warm and enveloping, like the Romagna sun, to perceive the affection, gratitude, enthusiasm and gratitude that the Panathlon Club of Cesena wanted to demonstrate towards its football team which had just returned to Serie B in the wonderful evening which took place in the halls of the Grand Hotel Da Vinci in Cesenatico.
It wasn’t so much (and only) the 400 people who filled the hotel room, but rather the atmosphere that could be felt, the love for what for Cesena is not simply a football team but “a cultural aspect, like the San Giovanni fair or a trip to our splendid hills”, as the president of the association Dionigio Dionigi said.
His words, sincere, heartfelt, dripping with happiness and pride, touched everyone’s hearts. These were the words of a person from Romagna, of an athlete, of a fan, but also of a person who spent himself personally for Cesena in that now distant – in terms of events and certainly not of memories – 2018:
“It was a year that came close to perfection, the opponents often considered the match against Cesena as an unplayable match – said the very president of Panathlon who had Ettore Rognoni son on one side of the table of honour. of Alberto, founder of the club and on the other the Aiello family, as if to combine history, tradition and current events – we were not used to such an exceptional season. After last season’s blow that would have stunned anyone, the great merit of the club and the team was to have the strength to get back up immediately. And I say thank you to the American owners because you understood Cesena’s sense of belonging to its city and to Romagna, a driving passion that knows no boundaries that is handed down from grandfather to grandfather. father to son”.
Dionigi then also rightly and legitimately remembered those 30 deserving members who in 2018 began to raise the company from the ashes with the help of friends, entrepreneurs and institutions, above all the Municipality.
“This is Cesena’s celebration, but it is also the celebration of those people, those members and those entrepreneurs who in 2018 rebelled against the loss of football in Cesena and above all of the Juventus team”.
If Mayor Lattuca contrasted “the dignified but respectful silence that last year followed the elimination against Lecco with the celebrations after the promotion obtained, we’ve been celebrating for a month and we haven’t gotten tired of it yet”, listen and the words of president John Aiello who returned to the United States yesterday together with his family and American partners but who will return because he and the other participants in this adventure have Cesena in their hearts were also true.
“For us children of immigrants who love Italy this is a passion. Last year we learned a lot, this year we changed something in terms of management and with the help of Fabio interno we achieved this result. Mister Toscano he was very good and like him all the players who were so strong on the pitch, how well they behaved off the pitch and this makes me really very proud of them.”
And now? Aiello, faithful to his line, doesn’t want to bite off more than he can chew: “Step by step we’ll see what happens. To have a strong team you need a strong club, we want to get to Serie A but it won’t be easy. In two years we arrived in Serie B, we’ll see each other again in two years to see where we’ve reached.”
It was an evening of celebration, smiles and hugs, a black and white celebration with the players as cheerful and united as on the pitch. But none of them were called to speak, as well as Mister Toscano and not even the director Fabio Arctic. I agree that humility and careful work were their peculiar characteristics this season, but this time perhaps an exception could have been made.
