The triumph of Carrarese is the manifesto of the great work carried out by president Fabio Oppicelli
An undertaking that began long ago. With patience, commitment and perseverance, crossing mountains, or perhaps it would be better to say Alps. Those Apuan Alps that have always accompanied matches, training sessions and meetings of the Carrarese. To understand how this climb was achieved, however, it is necessary to rewind the tape and go back to June 2017.
The season just ended, that 2016/17 see the Carrarese finishing their championship in sixteenth place. The coach was Aldo Firicano, today coach of Tuttocuoio, but this is not where we want to go. We are in the second week of June and everything changes.
“The president and administrator of the club Manrico Gemignani has announced that he considers his task completed”, this is the note published on its official websites by the Tuscan club. Which is followed shortly after by another: “Carrarese makes the news official on its official website that Fabio Oppicelli will become the new president of the club“.
Days of confusion and uncertainty a Carrara. What will happen to the team? Will you be affected by this change? The new management announces the separation from Firicano and it didn’t take long for the signature to arrive Silvio Baldini, fresh from the experience of Vicenza and already at the helm of the club from 1995 to 1997. We need to find ourselves with a profile like him, born in Massa, to go back to putting the big target in our sights.
The Oppicelli-Baldini duo
Since Baldini’s return the team is back on the right track. Three seasons at the helm of the gialloblù, under the presidency of Oppicelliin which the Carrarese it has grown year after year. Two seventh places in the first two seasons and best attack in the group with 65 goals at the end of the 2018 regular season. The bar is rising.
In May i gialloblù finished the championship in second place, behind Monza on 45 points. Once the quarter-finals of the playoffs had passed, the city had begun to once again enjoy that feeling that had been missing for 71 years. They remember the match against Bari in Carrara well. It took extra time to decide the finalist and it seemed that even that wasn’t enough. Until Simeri canceled out the Carrarini’s dreams in the 119th minute. The appointment with paradise, however, is only postponed.
The dream is reality: Oppicelli has built a masterpiece
After the three-year period with Baldini, Oppicelli chooses Antonio di Natale as successor. We are almost there? We still have to wait. “Totò’s” two seasons at the helm of Carrarese were not unforgettable. The category was maintained but the leap forward that everyone expected was not achieved. A 10th and a 14th place. In July 2022 we then chose to go to Del Canto.
In season 22/23 the gialloblù return to leading a good championship finishing in fourth place in the regular season but the playoffs stopped in the first round. Halfway through the 23/24 season Oppicelli finds himself at a crossroads. Continue with Del Canto or find the spark elsewhere. Only one step missing, that the president finds in Calabro’s profile. The combination turns out to be extremely successful. Fabio Oppicelli saw things through, and Carrarese returns to Serie B after 76 years.
