He died today, Tuesday 2nd July, in Pistoia, Communard Nicholas, who won the championship with Cagliari in 1970.
There are names that are not forgotten. Ricciotti, for example. Or maybe Communard. If you then find them in the same team you understand that you are in front of something magical and unrepeatable. As it was Communard Nicholas (by the way Ricciotti was Greatti, his teammate in Cagliari). Niccolai scored his last own goal. To all those who loved him. Leaving the field of life. He was 77 years old. Many spent explaining why he always scored in the wrong goal. His. An exaggerated reputationlike all prejudices. Comunardo scored six wrong goals, two less, just to say, than Riccardo Ferri. Except that his were works of art, not blunders. Headers into the top corner that not even Zamora could save.
The match of the century was lost
Only Niccolai was much more. A defender with the best of those that the ankles of the attackers would never want to encounter. His were also fragile. He always had to bandage them before playing. The one time he forgot he seriously hurt himself. Only he chose the wrong match: Italy-Sweden, the debut at the 1970 World Cup. Rosato came in and he never played again. He missed the match of the century with Germany and the final against Pelé. Another own goal by his team.
Niccolai and the Cagliari that won everything
Toscano from Uzzano in Pistoiese made his way with difficulty in the world of football where the best do not always make it. Perhaps this is also why football is a metaphor for life. The fact is that he ended up in the most unlikely team to lift some trophies. Ininstead that Cagliari won everything. Because a championship in Sardinia was worth at least three Champions won elsewhere. There was a whole system to dribble, including referees. And it wasn’t indifference.
Niccolai, with his face of someone who has seen it all and is not surprised by anything, with a comb-over on his head that carried him forward through the years, was a bulwark for those in front. The Domenghinis, the Goris and above all the Rivas.
They could count on him. There was no way through there. In the end, he was the one who decided when and, above all, how to concede a goal. A guarantee for the attackers, a nightmare for the goalkeepers, even if they were called Ricky Albertosi. But even in this case it borders on legend, worse with exaggeration. The defense of the Sardinians was practically impenetrable. In the year of the championship they conceded only eleven goals. A record. The rearguard was a perfect mix between Cera’s class and Martiradonna’s hasty pace. They say that Scopigno, the Cagliari coach, commented in front of Niccolai wearing the national team jersey: “Niccolai on worldwide television. Now I’ve seen it all.” Demonstrating a lack of confidence that certainly didn’t exist. Scopigno loved biting jokes, but the substance said otherwise. Niccolai had a permanent place in the team. Someone as stern as him was not easy to find. Furthermore, he added elegance, which was not a quality required by stoppers at the time.It is not known whether he was also courted by the big teams, probably yes, but he remained at Cagliari, like Riva except in the final phase of his career played in the lower leagues.
Where does the name Communardo come from?
The name Comunardo came from his father, a former Livorno goalkeeper and a convinced anti-fascist, who wanted to take inspiration from the Paris Commune late nineteenth century. An idealist like his son in the field.
It makes you think that Niccolai’s farewell to life occurred a few months after Gigi Riva’s (in January, in the Corriere, Comunardo remembered Riva like this: «We had always known each other. We had even done the military together, at Cecchignola in Rome. How many things we did. The best years of our lives»). Two, who in different ways, knew how to score goals. And that must mean something. Thank you Comunardo, football with people like you will never be a game like any other.
