Who said that applause and the famous “pasillo de honor”, i.e. the catwalk of honor, are reserved only for footballers who win a competition but also for the losers who receive the right tribute from their opponents? Even the referee Daniele Orsato of the Schio section had the same treatment at the end of the last match refereed in A league at the Gewiss Stadium between Atalanta and Fiorentina where his son and wife also took to the pitch.
Tribute and celebratory shirt
We don’t know if Orsato expected so much heat at the end of the match: before saying goodbye to their respective fans for next season, players and coaches arranged themselves in such a way as to create a corridor in the middle of the field for the whistler born in Montecchio Maggiore ( Vicenza) on 23 November 1975 and applaud him for the record appearances in the top Italian championship with a celebratory shirt prepared for the occasion by Atalanta and Fiorentina and worn by the protagonist after the final whistle: “Legend 290“, explicit reference to the 290 matches refereed, second referee of all time behind only Concetto Lo Bello.
Visibly emotional amid the applause of the players, Orsato thanked everyone, shook hands with coach Gasperini and also received two t-shirts, one for each team, with the Orsato writing and the forever indelible number of 290.”Thank you, thank you all“, he exclaimed several times before briefly giving himself over to the cameras and the photographers’ shots.
Orsato’s numbers
Given the overall number of matches refereed in Serie A, yesterday’s match was not the definitive farewell to football which will only happen at the end of the European Championships in Germany where our whistle will be the protagonist. For the rest, an enviable career made up of numbers that are difficult to reach given that he refereed in three different Football World Cups, 55 matches in the Champions League and 16 in the Europa League. Very high numbers after years of apprenticeship, as happens to everyone, in the minor leagues. Before leaving Serie A, Orsato had already declared that after the European Championships he would say enough was enough.
“A wonderful experience ends and I am proud of it, both for me and for my family. For me it is always an emotion and a pride to represent the Italian referees, it is an enormous responsibility. We’re more of a family than a team, so it was really exciting.” he declared a couple of weeks ago to the microphones of Sky Sports.
If Spalletti’s Italian national team does not reach the final in Germany, he is one of the candidates to manage it: with all due respect, we hope that his last match of his career can be in the semi-final.
