Dead Tonino Orrù, was the president of the double promotion from C to A of Cagliari

The gentleman president has left us. He had been suffering for years. Tonino Orrù, born in 1938, from Cagliari, disappeared last night. He had been ill for some time. With his family, with humility and wisdom he signed a management in the eighties whose jewel was the ascent from C to A with a 39-year-old Claudio Ranieri on the bench. Known for tolerance and doing good people. Esteemed for his transparent and human being, he knew about football and embodied the figure of the acute manager, capable of intuiting and betting on coaches, center forwards, full backs, collaborators. “I won’t be able to forget him, Tonino and his family welcomed me and made me feel at home. Their pain is mine too” recalls Ranieri moved. “Presidents like this don’t exist. He was a kind of father to all of us, from kids like me to established champions like Matteoli and Francescoli” says Gianluca Festa. The condolences, from the Cagliari fans, to the other clubs, to the world of local and national sport, are touching. A special president is gone. Passionate about football, so much to drive and manage everyday life himself. “He also took care of getting us hot tea and if someone had problems paying the rent or the installment of the car, he took care of it confidentially” says Francesco Marroccu, current diesse of Verona, footballer and captain of Atletico, the formation arrived in the D series and founded by the patron of Cagliari in 1963. In short, a figure of rare closeness to the athletes, to the fans, who have always had him as a reference. And even with the journalists he had a correct and honest relationship. In receiving the lifetime achievement award from USSI in 2016, he dedicated a passage to reporters. “You have always been very close to my family and to Cagliari even in the most difficult passages. I love you”. The number one of Coni, Giovanni Malagò also joined in the applause.

The dedication to the sports press, unusual then and now by the owners of the balloon steamer, remained imprinted on the insiders. A manager, direct and sincere. Who enjoyed himself sixteen hours a day in the family business, one of the most important on the island between building, construction, heating and car dealerships. Founded by his father Mario, Orrù Costruzioni and the other subsidiaries were run by the brothers Ninnino, Efisio, Nello and Carlo. But the sisters Marinella and Patrizia were also part of an industrious, prosperous and active dynasty. “One day, at 6.30 in the morning, he called me Boniperti. He asked for one of our midfielders but he was surprised to know that I was already in the company. The truth? Presidency of a Serie A team or not, I’ve never changed my habits” Tonino proudly recounted, exalting his origins, a sweaty childhood amidst concrete, bricks and window frames. At Cagliari it all began in 1986. With the entrepreneurs Gianni Simonetti, Carlo Cogliolo, Vinicio Sarritzu and Ubaldo Caria, he hoisted the club on his shoulders. The local consortium, despite a one-of-a-kind shield sewn onto its shirts in 1970, avoided the bankruptcy and probable disappearance of the company founded in 1920. The bet was difficult and risky. But that bet was a big winner. With simplicity, few proclamations and many facts. In addition, seriousness and competence, even in slowly choosing the leading figures. Since Carmine Longo, the sensational ds-senator in going to track down a debutant Claudio Ranieri at the Puteolana in C. However, the two-year course in C1 is complicated. The patron sees far. It also involves Gigi Riva, calls Mario Tiddia to the bench for Robotti. The Orrù family, with a nod from the patriarch Mario, quickly took over the shares and took over the leadership of the company. Tonino will be number one for four seasons, Ninnino for one. Practical people, accustomed to slavery. Even on the pitch you don’t mess around. The club narrowly escaped relegation to C2 by a single point in 1987/88. But the following season the music changes and the first leap is made.

The feat of the double climb with Ranieri from C to A, including the success on Spal of the Italian Cup of the category, remains science fiction. The victory of B and the subsequent salvation with the big names in Italian football is the further icing. Then, headed by Ninnino, in 1992 the Orrù family changed hands. The sale of Cagliari to Massimo Cellino (“I went to buy tiles and a shower cubicle and they sold me a football team!” the words of the new patron) is part of a broader strategy that would have disturbed Napoli’s attention and money of Ferlaino, who narrowly fetched Daniel Fonseca, and of the wheat entrepreneurs, Casillo and Ambrosio. Tony is satisfied. He will tell of a now pressing and unsustainable management of the club. Furthermore, football is changing, and not entirely for the good, at lightning speed. Always in love with healthy, vigorous football that tastes like lime on dirt fields, the patron gets closer to Atletico Madrid, which he had never abandoned, to semi-professionalism and amateur championships. But he will never lose sight of youth competitions. On the little players he repeated a maxim coined by the technical director and middle school principal, the late Ermanno Cortis: “One out of a million boys will be a champion. I like to think that with the work done in our youth academies, the remaining 999,000 will become good citizens.” Tonino Orrù ponders the step back in a serene and gradual way. But Cagliari has never stopped following him. He was thrilled to have found Gianfranco Zola in 2003: the champion from Oliena who takes Cagliari to Serie A with Reja had escaped the rossoblù casting in the mid-90s. But Moggi’s Napoli had already blocked him. Tonino then enjoyed his climb back to Serie A with Massimo Rastelli in 2015. He suffered from last season’s horrible relegation. Last December he was among the first to know with pleasure of the possible signing of Claudio Ranieri. The coach from San Saba who had just arrived in the city went to see him. An intense and painful conversation. In fact, after 35 years, a circle that has come full circle. In the name of good people. Pampered by his grandchildren, Tonino Orrù was followed with infinite love by his wife and daughters. Tomorrow the funeral at the church of the Cappuccini, in viale Sant’Ignazio.