Bruno Neri, the story of the partisan footballer who challenged Mussolini – Corriere.it

Florence, 13 September 1931. The new Fiorentina stadium (the current Artemio Franchi) is inaugurated. Mussolini had it built, which is why it is not oval but in the shape of a D (Duce) and named after the squad member Giovanni Berta. A friendly is being played between Fiorentina and Admira Vienna. Before starting the two teams are lined up in midfield: the players of the home team with their eyes on the tribune raise their right arm. They all do it, except one. Bruno Neri remains still. The podest Giuseppe della Gherardesca and the fascist hierarchs in the grandstand challenge him motionless. An historic rejection which, it is said, cost him the 1934 World Cup.

Footballer and fighter, anti-fascist, Neri was born in Faenza in 1910. Passionate about art and literature, the love of football to accompany poems and exhibitions. Right-back, few goals in his career but three appearances for the national team, he began playing at the age of sixteen for his hometown team, then Livorno and Fiorentina, where in seven years he made 187 appearances and a promotion to Serie A, before closing between Lucchese and Turin . Not just football: he completed his agricultural studies, enrolled at the Oriental University of Naples, bought a workshop in Milan from an entrepreneur before the outbreak of war.

Join the Resistance through his cousin Virgilio, a Milanese notary in contact with personalities such as Don Sturzo and the future President of the Republic Gronchi. Active in the experience of radio Zella, which transmits military information to the allies, he enlists in the Ravenna Battalion, battle name Berni, a sort of anagram of his surname combined with the first letter of his name. He became deputy commander of that Battalion, in action on the Gothic Line. On 10 July 1944, together with his friend and commander of the Ravenna Vittorio Belleghi, nickname of battle Nico, he is patrolling a road, near the Hermitage of Gamogna, which was supposed to lead his Battalion to recover an allied airdrop on Monta Lavane when he crosses a group of Nazis: Berni and Nico have no escape.

Turin, where he played, has dedicated a commemorative plaque to him, placed on the tower of Piazza San Gabriele da Gorizia. A plaque was affixed to the wall of his birthplace in Faenza in which it is remembered that Neri, after having excelled as an athlete in sporting competitions, first revealed in clandestine action and then in warfare as a fighter and as a guide, magnificent virtues. Example and warning to future generations. On the right side, ever since that afternoon in Florence.