Genoa for Perri | The paper

We missed you, even this time, when the game wasn’t over yet and the party had already started. If Roberto Perrone had been at the Marassi stadium two Fridays ago, he would have written the best piece about his Genoa. He would have recounted Grifo’s Good Friday, the party for his return to Serie A, the lights, the chiaroscuro, the tears of happiness, the ancient songs and perhaps even the modern ones, “You’il never walk alone” and “Guasto d ‘Love”. If Perri had been at the Luigi Ferraris stadium, with his half Tuscan off, he would have told what (many) others would not even have been able to glimpse. And of course if it had been up to him he would have “never left us alone”, as the song of the Liverpool fans says.

Perri would have accompanied us before, during and after Genoa-Bari, a match which on paper no longer counted for anything, but which had a bit of everything inside. Roberto loved sincerity, without compromise. And he loved the stories of sincere men. Here too, in the Sports Sheet, he had written many. Like that of Osvaldo Bagnoli, who together with Professor Franco Scoglio and Gian Piero Gasperini will remain the Genoa coaches he loved the most. “Osvaldo Bagnoli wore a cream-colored jacket recycled from his time in Verona. There was a slight halo where Signora Bagnoli had unstitched the Scaliger coat of arms. Osvaldo was ironic. He called me “the slim journalist”. It sounded like the title of an Einaudi novel”. Good story, he continues: “He played sensational football, different but fun like Vujadin Boskov’s. Uncle Vuja returned to Novi Sad on Mondays. ‘I’m only talking to you because you’re from Genoa and I’m sure you write accurately’. Bagnoli had found a 5-3-2 with Skuhravy & Aguilera as offensive ends. One tall and big, one short and fast, like Elkjaer and Galderisi in Verona. Football is not invented, it is recycled. Like the jackets”.

That’s what Roberto liked, people like that, stories like this, this sport made up of lives that may be bizarre, but true. So let’s give it a try: what would Perri have liked about the last Genoese party? What would he tell him? He would have liked Giovanni De Prà’s medal which returns under the Ferraris lawn, in front of the North steps, like the bulb of a tulip that has sprouted from a Vermeer painting. That medal came from the Amsterdam Games, 1928 and (also) from the Olympics Roberto Perrone knew everything. The medal is a reproduction, but the story is authentic. Good story, isn’t it, Perri?

Like that of Mimmo Criscito, who says goodbye to football by saying goodbye to Genoa, the team that gave him and to which he gave back the most. Well written story, as people like you or Osvaldo Soriano know how to do: Criscito touches the last ball in his life and scores. It all adds up, because Criscito had also taken a penalty in the last derby played, but he had made a mistake, certifying your Grifone’s descent to B. Well, you would have liked a story like this, because it tells of descents and ascents. You also liked the difficult years of your Pro Recco, in the 80s, when this water polo team was almost a private matter for you, because even one of the family took care of making ends meet. Now Pro Recco has been able to buy everything for a while now and wins almost everything, a few hours after the Genoa party the scudetto number 35 was sewn onto the cap. Great trip Perri: two parties before the return. Hello friend and thanks. We also wanted to remember you after Good Friday in your Genoa, we tried, lining up some rossoblù stories, the ones you told Giovanni in a stubborn and opposite direction, until the day in which he (exhausted) confessed to you “dad, now I too Genoa fan”. Ah no, “it’s not true guys, he chose Giovanni, I have nothing to do with it”. Balle Perri, said with affection. All of this is thanks to you.