Those five years of Potenza’s Serie B in the 1960s, as we know, have become legend. And even its protagonists have fully entered the category of “myth”, without wanting to emphasize this. Of course, about sixty years have passed since those events but the historical memory is solid in our community, almost passed down in our chromosomes from grandfather to father and from father to children and so on.
On Saturday 15 June one of those protagonists passed away, the full-back born in Bagheria (Palermo) on 02/05/1940, Rosario Spanò (Saro for friends).
First kicks in the ranks of Bagheria, with whom he reached the first team in 1958: Potenza took him from the Sicilians in the summer of 1961 and with the rossoblù shirt on he played six seasons between Serie C and B.
He is a very effective defender, energetic but always correct towards opposing attackers, endowed with impetus and exuberance which also make him a first-rate ‘fluidizer’: his infrequent – but always stinging – raids on the relevant lane in fact create more than some headaches for the opposing defenses, surprised by the speed and ardor of the Sicilian full-back who, when he recovers the ball, is capable of triggering rapid counterattacks. After the first season in Potenza (1961/62) in which he alternated roles with Santoni, the following year he was practically the owner of the number 2 shirt, giving a very valuable contribution to the promotion of the Lucanians to Serie B despite being busy with military service. And even in the following cadet seasons Spanò ensured his generous commitment whenever he was called into question.
In the summer of 1967, after having contributed to the rossoblù cause with 102 appearances (99 in the championship and 3 in the Italian Cup) and one goal (at Prato in his debut season in Serie B), he separated from Potenza to return to his Sicily, settling at Trapani.
With the Granata Islanders, Rosario took part in three Serie C tournaments (in the 1968/69 one he was the victim of a serious injury which forced him to miss almost the entire season) and in the D one in 1970/71.
Having hung up his boots, he began a career as a commercial inspector at a company in Milan and settled permanently in Northern Italy (in the Modena area) with his wife and two children.
His nobility of soul was well known just as his footballing stories of a career that reached its peak in our city in those legendary years of Potenza in Serie B remain indelible.
