When you wander around a suburban field, thinking about great football, you can hardly imagine actually meeting a Serie A team. And one of the oldest in Italy. Yet this will happen tomorrow to 15 girls and boys from Badalucco 2009, children aged 7 to 13.
On the pitch of the Green Club in Rome, upon their arrival, they will find the chicks of the same age from the Lazio nursery waiting for them for a friendly match that we could define as luxury. It is one of the initiatives implemented by the association’s management to celebrate the first 15 years of activity of the association. For the occasion there was the perfect organization of the director Giampiero Boeri, in collaboration with the parish of Badalucco and above all with the great help of a former footballer native of the small center of the valley, who after having played in Serie A teams and B is now one of the paintings of the light blue team.
This is Alberto Bianchi: a teacher father and housewife mother, who took his first steps as an amateur footballer in Badalucco. Thanks to his predisposition and his stubbornness, he made a career in Spezia, Entella, Cremonese and Varese, until he landed at the oldest team in the capital. Lazio was born in 1908, as an offshoot of a running club founded in 1900 by a Bersaglieri non-commissioned officer. Lazio wears his coat of arms in the colors of their shirt. The white and blue refer to the flag of Greece, home of the modern Olympics, where the Italian runners triumphed.
For Badalucco 2009 the following will take the field: Aldo Donzella, Alice Donzella, Pietro Donzella, Christian Donzella, Francesco Polidori, Riccardo Ozenda, Mattia Ozenda, Leonardo Oliva, Ludovico Panizzi, Gregorio Panizzi, Joele Cane, Lorenzo Bruzzone, Elia Bianchi, Emanuele Bianchi, Sveva Bianchi. To respect the times, according to Giampiero Boeri’s recommendations, tomorrow morning at 6 they will have to get on the bus already wearing their uniform.
The children will be accompanied by their parents and the management of the association represented by the Vice President Roberto Oliva and Giampiero Boeri himself. With them there will also be Dino and Antonietta, Alberto Bianchi’s two parents. The little ‘bauchegni’ will take to the field led by their coaches Maurizio Donzella and Lorenzo Bianchi, the latter is a cousin of the most famous footballer. On the same evening the entire group will move to the Olympic stadium to watch the Lazio Verona Championship match.
In the following two days the people of Bauchegni will act as tourists and will have the opportunity to taste the dishes of Roman gastronomy in two well-known places in the capital. For the occasion, and not surprisingly, Don Andrea from the parish of Badalucco was added to the staff, who will act as guide during the visit to the Vatican and the eternal city, also celebrating two Holy Masses.
“For me, this trip is the realization of a dream – comments Giampiero Boeri – It is the culmination of a journey that began 15 years ago, with my friend Tonen. A journey of healthy sports, football and above all participation and sharing. For us it is not important what the score of the match organized with the Lazio players will be. The educational aspect of an experience done all together is relevant. With a high emotional load. There’s the match against Lazio, there’s the visit to San Pietro and our wonderful capital. It is a gift that we wanted to give, by combining many resources, to the children of a small town in the Argentina Valley, which we always carry in our hearts, because it is the place of our home of our affections of our quiet and healthy life”.
It is no coincidence that the baggage includes a gift for the president of Lazio, Lotito, consisting of a sample of the best products from the Roy oil mill, the team’s sponsor. Furthermore, before the meeting, each chick from Badalucco will give the little ones from Lazio a pack of typical canestrelli from the Argentina Valley. I return to Badalucco in the late afternoon on Monday with a lot of tiredness and a great baggage of emotions, of dreams fulfilled. For adults and children. And that’s no small thing.
