Amici mai’ is Antonello Venditti’s hit song released in 1991. The phrase in the lyrics of that song is very well known: ‘Certain loves don’t end: they take immense turns and then come back’. Phrase that is well suited to the sporting situations experienced by Gianluca Guidi and Antonio Tangredi, whose returns to Livorno Rugby 1931 – branded Unicusano – were made official this Friday during the very successful end of season 2022/23 party, which coincided with the presentation of the entire technical staff 2023/24.
THAT 1991. In that 1991, while ‘Amici mai’ was being sung, the very capable scrum-half born in ’68 Gianluca Guidi (simply ‘Cuca’ to everyone), was among the undisputed protagonists and points of reference of Rugby Livorno. In that 90/91 year – coach Marco Bollesan, sponsor Ecomar Italia – the Labronici achieved an excellent eighth place in the A1 championship, the highest domestic tournament in which all the best Italian teams were involved at the time (the franchises had not been set up active ‘only’ in international competitions). Also in 1991, more precisely on July 1st, Antonio Tangredi (known to all as ‘Gundam’) was born, the very strong right prop active in the last three years for Colorno, in the top flight. The powerful forward, who started playing the oval ball late (at the age of 21) in his Pontedera (it was the coach of the Livorno first team, Riccardo Squarcini, who ‘convinced’ him to enter the fray), is ready to return to the Labronica team of the ‘Tre Rose’, in which he already played brilliantly in the (not even distant) times of B.
GUIDI DIRECTOR OF RUGBY. Gianluca Guidi is one of the best ‘products’ of the thriving Livorno nursery. After starting to play minirugby at the age of 6, he continued the classic youth career and entered the first team in the 1984/85 season. Apart from a parenthesis, in the 1997/98 season, spent in L’Aquila, he always remained in green and white until the 2000/01 season; in the years 1999/2000 (the one characterized by an unthinkable promotion to the top flight) and 2000/01 (the last in an absolute sense played by the green and whites in the senior category), he was divided between the duties of coach and player. In 2001 he began his ‘professional’ coaching career outside Livorno. For a long time as a federal coach, he then managed Calvisano (two championships, a Schield Cup and an Italian Cup), the Zebre and the Fiamme Oro Roma. ‘Cuca’ returns to the green and white fold, as ‘director of rugby’, technical director of all the representative teams: from the first team to the Prime Mete (the under 5 reality).
SILVANO GESI TROPHY. Friday’s party involved over 500 fans, representing the first team and the nine youth and propaganda teams. There was space for them, in a spectacular setting of tables in the central corridor of the playing field, for a tasty dinner. Before sitting down at the table, the athletes, from the stands of the ‘Montano’, witnessed the award ceremony of the cadet team of Unicusano Livorno Rugby, capable of finishing in first place in the regional C championship (the tournament in which the teams that participated did not qualify for the promotion pool of C) and therefore to win the Trophy dedicated to the unforgettable Silvano Gesi. It was the Italian Simone Gesi, the rugby midfielder born and raised in green and white (as well as Silvano’s nephew) who delivered the Trophy into the hands of the coaches Gianni Carugi and Igli Borsato.
THE INTERVENTIONS. During the ceremony, the President of Unicusano Livorno Rugby 1931 Giovanni Riccetti and the Councilor Francesca Lusini, President of the Peuterey Group, announced the appointment of Gianluca Guidi as Director of Rugby.
“I’m really happy to return home – said ‘Cuca’ -; more than twenty years have passed… and I return with great enthusiasm. Unicusano Livorno Rugby is a club full of history and an excellence of the Italian rugby movement. The green and white players fully intercept the important requirements of our sport such as inventiveness, personality and quality.”
Riccetti stated: “Aware of living in a rugby-fertile land, the return to Livorno of “Cuca” Guidi, this time in the role of “Director of Rugby”, with responsibilities for the training of technicians and the coordination between the groups of educators who occupy different age groups, it is absolutely the best we could hope for to encourage the growth of our young athletes, and accentuate that “made in Livorno” which has always been a decisive factor for Labronian players and coaches in being able to excel in the panorama national. Thanks to ‘Cuca’, with my warm ‘welcome back’, for wanting to accept such a demanding and exciting challenge.”.
“When I met Cuca – declared Francesca Lusini – the first thing that struck me was the fact that he spoke to me about Livorno as a “brand”. For me, who deals with brands, it was an epiphany. Livorno and Livorno Rugby 1931, with its almost one hundred years of history, are truly a brand to be valorised: only our athletes, large and small, have that distinctive and unique style of play. Our vision is to tell our centenary history by increasingly highlighting this aspect, and creating a wide-ranging educational, training and technical path, which creates a common line from the First Goals to the First Team, which increasingly speaks of Made in Livorno , and that it is increasingly a symbol, like the inevitable anthem that accompanies the victories of Livorno Rugby 1931, of the “Gente di Mare”.
THE STAFF. The technical staff from the First Team to the First Goals was also presented during the evening. First Team: head coach Riccardo Squarcini, assistant coach Cristiano Bufalini, athletic trainers Andrea Bruni and Renato Burani, physiotherapists Riccardo Pastorino and Antonio Sambaldi. Under 18 coaches: Luca Isozio, Simone Baldi and Francesca Argelassi. Under 16 coaches: Diego Rolla, Alessandro Saltapari and Simone Bartolucci. Under 14 coaches: Diego Rolla, Diego Ianda, Matteo Carrai and Valentin Saleme. Under 12 coaches: Federico Guidi, Riccardo Fabbrini, Marco Esposito, Piero Chiesa and Edoardo Giammattei. Under 10 coaches: Daniele Aspromonti, Federica Muzi, Rocco Montanaro, Antonio Papucci and Luigi Freschi. Under 8 coaches: Stefano Marini, Silvia Nocelli, Giacomo Bradac and Valentin Saleme. Under 6 coaches: Rocco Montanaro and Silvia Nocelli. Prime Mete coaches: Martina Angioli, Anna Gambogi, Adele del Moro and Aurora Donati.
