Daniele De Rossi he will be welcomed as he deserves at the Olimpico, for a Roma-Genoa which is not just present versus past or, perhaps, present versus future. It is a match that, for the first time ever, as a footballer and as a coach, puts De Rossi in front of (and not against) his belonging, his history and his identity. Football news is full of rhetoric and, inevitably, even telling what Daniele De Rossi represents for a significant part of Roma fans risks becoming a rhetorical exercise.
However, there is an element that makes the bond between the Roma fan and De Rossi something different from the tribute for a flag. AND’ the wrong suffered by Romanismeverything, even the least conscious and visceral one, with the inexplicable dismissal that removed him from the bench of his Roma after four matches of the last championship.
A wrong that is experienced as the abrupt interruption of a non-replicable project: a true Roma fan, an undisputed leader, potentially a great coach, leading the construction of a team capable of winning again and lasting over time. Together, utopia, hope and concrete possibility in a formula that can be approached, the fans hope, but never equalled. In summary, Roma may even manage to win, perhaps with Gian Piero Gasperini on the bench, but it will never be Daniele De Rossi’s Roma that wins, built by a Roma fan for Roma fans.
For this reason, the wrong suffered is a wound that can only be closed if, or when, De Rossi can sit on the right bench again. It may or may not happen but only from there can the next chapter of a story that has only written its first pages. Otherwise, it will always remain an unfinished story, with regret prevailing over the rest.
A story that can be read from both sides. All the words spoken by the Genoa coach go in the same direction: honesty in reiterating what Roma is but also respect, in a difficult balance to maintain, for his responsibilities towards Genoa and the Genoa players. De Rossi will enter the Olimpico and then manage the match, trying to neutralize the flow of emotions but without pretending to be as impossible as it is ungenerous. Roma fans will welcome him for who he is, not just one of their own but the man who could have taken them where no one else, and it’s not just a question of results, could ever take them. (From Fabio Insenga)
