Of Fabrizio Roncone
The former world champion goalkeeper, now head of the Azzurri delegation, has endorsed Prime Minister Meloni. Now you try to take us to the World Cup or maybe they won’t invite him anymore
Never throw away your notes. With a cool head, you always end up finding something interesting. A detail missed. An underrated phrase. A forgotten face. It also happens with the notes taken in the phantasmagoric days of Atreju, the pharaonic festivity organized by the Brothers of Italy in Rome, inside the gardens of Castel Sant’Angelo, an exhibition of strength and pure power.
So, leafing through the Moleskine, I find the story of the slimy stage and of someone who, up there, lost his balance. Because you should know that the stage, at the end, became quite slippery due to the saliva. Nothing transcendental, mind you. Indeed, I say more: intercepted the gaze of Arianna Meloni always sitting in the front row, crossed by ministers and undersecretaries who came and went all pompous and inebriated by the scent of steaming porchetta and political triumph, it was inevitable that some guests at the event thought it appropriate to go up on stage and rub their tongues a little.
Precisely for this reason, most of the guests were careful to remain centered and measured. I therefore confess that I was very impressed by Gianluigi Buffonformer world champion and current head of delegation of the Italian national team. Who, instead, came out with a sensational, and inappropriate, endorsement: «Giorgia Meloni is certainly representing our nation in the best way. He has been governing for a long time and this is a great result.”
Buffon forgets that he has an institutional role. And that the blue shirt belongs to everyone. Not just those on the right.
«His youthful thoughts were poorly expressed at the age of 18», his wife, Ilaria D’Amico, was keen to point out – on the eve (referring to the famous television interview of 1999, in Parma, where Buffon showed up wearing a t-shirt on which was written «Executioner who gives up»). D’Amico tried to be convincing: “Gianluigi is, rather, a moderate liberal.” In short, it is inspired by Luigi Einaudi and Giovanni Malagodi, but then it arrives at the Meloni sisters, falters, and slips. Bad own goal. But it’s gone now.
Buffon now tries to take us, with Rino Gattuso, to the World Cup. If we don’t qualify this time either, dear Gigi, they are quite capable of not inviting you again. Patriotism, in Atreju, is a serious thing.
December 25, 2025 (changed December 25, 2025 | 2.36pm)
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