Some legacies are born from watching history unfold. From Berlin to Wembley. Giorgio Chiellini was in the stands of the Olympiastadion when Fabio Cannavaro lifted the World Cup at the end of an epic journey – and with a very strong defense, right up until the last penalty. And the deeds of that golden generation, although obscured by subsequent events, remained preserved amidst a thousand difficulties by the future captain of Italy. Who later grew up, became consecrated, found his ideal traveling companions in the most successful Juventus ever and together with one of them he in turn achieved that national feat that borders on legend. Not only for excellence in movements and armored door performance: also and above all for aesthetics, language and indomitable mentality. Because the collective Italian imagination of Euro 2020 is not dotted with goals or saves. It is Chiellini who gives the liar to Jordi Alba, psychologically outclassing Spain before the penalties; it’s Bonucci who “rinses his mouth” in the final, desecrating the temple of football and those who created it, or Giorgione who bullies poor Saka in extra time, graduating honoris causa in the phenomenology of tactical fouls in a workmanlike manner.
In front of all this, on the bench, there was Alessandro Bastoni. Today the Inter centre-back is the quintessence of a way of defending – and playing this role, well beyond 90 minutes – which evolves and is handed down along the common thread that passes through Coverciano. Bastoni not only represents modernity, made up of an impeccable non-possession phase combined with the dexterity in setting up the action and, when necessary, scratching in front of goal – he is currently the most valuable Italian footballer ever, 80 million euros according to Transfermarkt. But he is also the progenitor of a new lineage of formidable department colleagues united by character, even more than by skills on the field: all “good guys”, exemplary in attitude and clean image, at the same time open to football and life. Even abroad, in the most beautiful championship in the world or at the top of ours.
This is a block of emerging defenders, more or less accomplished, on whom the Italian movement will be able to count in the years to come in a relationship that is perpetuated. Refining, adapting to the times: the proverbial “bolt and fastener”, cross and delight of the Azzurri’s past, has aged beyond any stereotype. Speaking of observing: Bastoni saw someone up close, like a lighthouse, since his youth. This is the case of Giorgio Scalvini, who cut his teeth in Atalanta’s youth team while Alessandro took his first steps in Gasperini’s team. After retracing his footsteps promising great good, including the national team, Scalvini is now struggling with a physical ordeal that has lasted for over a season. But he’ll be back. “I grew up with the pain, I will take everything back,” said the Atalanta defender. «Today I feel like a player of the present more than ever: only if you do well in the present can you have a good future. And the past serves to learn, to understand what to do better, to no longer make mistakes.”
Words to treasure, especially for those who are 49 even younger: Giovanni Leoni just had time to try out the Liverpool shirt, who also has to deal with the rupture of his cruciate. Yet one season at Parma was enough for him to get a ticket to the Premier League, with enormous long-term prospects and a propensity for the unknown – it is no coincidence that the expression open-minded in Italian does not even exist as an adjective – which can set a precedent, break down barriers. Like him, several other protagonists of this block did it, a symptom of a beneficial generational mobility: Diego Coppola ready to start again at Brighton, after having kept Verona clinging to Serie A; Destiny Udogie – spilling over to the full-backs – sprinting for Tottenham; Riccardo Calafiori new Arsenal pillar. And precisely the trajectory of the former Bologna centre-back is emblematic of what was said about the incalculable emotional quid transmitted on the long wave of Bonucci and Chiellini: of the disastrous and apathetic Italian expedition in Germany, perhaps the only truly touching snapshot, truly worth remembering, is his ride with liberating tears against Croatia, redemption of a previous own goal – unexpected in his profession, which the boy tries to redeem for an entire country.
At the same time there are those who continue to establish themselves in Italy, and constitute an essential point of reference for those young people disoriented by the waltz of the nurseries. Pietro Comuzzo found his way out at Fiorentina, with impressive precociousness and an epithet – “soldier”, reminiscent of Dilivian – that befits the greats. And for Alessandro Buongiorno – via Torino, who grew up dreaming of Nesta and Maldini – the definitive consecration arrived with the scudetto won at Napoli. He and Bastoni are both 26 years old, speeding towards the peak of their careers and showing the way to those entering their elite world. «When I found my sticker and stuck it in the players’ album», says the Italian centre-back, «it was a wonderful emotion: as a child you see those faces as heroes, one day you hope to get there too». Today more than ever they are the faces of the defense.
And Eleven n° 65
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