“It is always a pleasure to be present when the Coop calls. What we become as adults is mainly due to what we spent as children and adolescents, starting from the family and the environment where we shared small successes and also some defeats. A place where we felt like family, made up of serious, honest, competent and generous people. It endowed me with a wealth of experience that I brought with me first as a footballer and today as a coach.”
It is a dive into the memories of Stefano Pioli who visited the exhibition in Parma set up to celebrate the 60 years of the Polisportiva Coop.
The former Milan coach remains deeply linked to Parma and the most recent confirmation is in the tribute paid to the anniversary of the sports club that saw him grow.
Former Parma footballer and then successful coach, Pioli leafed through the album of memories welcomed by president Enrico Zurlini: “When I invited Stefano I didn’t have much trouble convincing him…We remained friends, because in the Coop Pioli he had good technicians but above all friends and this is the key to this company.”
The club remembers how their father, Pasquino, was instrumental in the building works in via Reggio to create what is still the club house of the Polisportiva today.
“Have fun, commit yourself, do things in the best way possible and be together, because teaming up is important, it means creating bonds and relationships that will carry forward into life, when we become adults”, Pioli said to the young athletes.
Pioli’s football and life story begins from the “pitches” in Viale Piacenza and then moves on to the facility located in Via Reggio in Parma where his brilliant career began. Always close to the Polisportiva Coop, he has never missed important events such as during the celebrations for the club’s fiftieth anniversary, connecting via video call from Paris where he was away with his team.
There are around ten images on display in the exhibition, which portray him wearing the Polisportiva di Parma shirt, an emblematic memory of his unforgotten youth years which continue to bring him to our city to meet up with his friends, teammates and managers.
