Mass A tournament to remember Nicola Pinarelli, known to everyone as Pina, who died at just 22 years old, an initiative strongly supported by his mother Paola Diamanti, but also by his ex-girlfriend and all the friends who knew him and loved him, companions in life and football, the sport he loved above all else. Pina would have turned 23 on June 8th, and for the occasion his mother wanted to remember him with a charity tournament, entitled “Memorial for Pina”, a team five-a-side football tournament to be held at the sports center in the Massa hills in via Fonda in Massa. From a small thing between friends, 12 teams have already joined, a limit that was necessarily set for organizational reasons, but it already says a lot about how much Pina represented for those who want to remember him. The matches will be played over two halves of 15′ per half, in each group the last ones will be eliminated while the others will advance to the quarter-finals. The event will last all day and there will be the possibility of taking a lunch break on site with a menu, while in the evening, once the awards ceremony is over, anyone interested in making a toast to Nicola can go to the Inferno pizzeria in via Dante, with a reduced menu. The proceeds from the tournament, from various sponsors (many have already joined) and from the various offers, will go to the “Un Cuore un Mondo” Association of Massa, a charity that supports the families of children with heart disease hosted at the Hospital of Heart – Monasterio Foundation. Free entry with offer option. The choice of the organization receiving the donation was made by his mother Paola, considering it the best in line with what Pina would have wanted. «He was a cheerful boy, a leader of a group of friends, the driving force in parties and evenings, who he made me smile on every occasion, but very sensitive – his mother remembers him – I remember as a child he charged me at the seaside for a week for bottles of water for the Ramadam children who didn’t have anything to drink, he grumbled at me when I didn’t give alms to the gypsies when they were with children, he loved dogs and always asked me for a little brother even though he was now grown up. Perhaps the suffering children he saw when he happened to be hospitalized remained in his memory. He adored them.” «The kids tell me now that this will no longer be the summer of other years, the organizer is missing. He had a privileged relationship with me: he preferred a letter, a flower, a card to a gift, because in his opinion they expressed his feelings better than him. His motto was “love because the world needs love”. He worked in his father’s construction company, but his father’s football overwhelmed him from an early age. He made his debut in Serie D, played for Massese and other teams, he was a good goalkeeper and had trials for Empoli, Fiorentina, Spezia, but injuries and his unsuitable height slowed down his career. Inter was his passion. «When he watched Inter matches he wasn’t there for anyone, he couldn’t say a word, he even received a shirt signed by Lautaro. A couple of times a week he also played paddle with his friends, then for 8 months he was with a new girl, he was surrounded by affection. Four months ago he had bought a car and was happy about it, he hated drugs. A friend of his dedicated his degree thesis to him. It becomes difficult to get over it.” The tournament, the mother guarantees, will be the first of a long series, a constant appointment
Daniela Marzano
