Sampdoria now has a future

It seems that many have pulled the dawn on the streets of Genoa, those around Corte Lambruschini, the seat of the Sampdoria. They wanted to celebrate. Fans wearing very tight black t-shirts. “Hands off Samp”, it was written above. Characters of a beautiful fluorescent yellow color, to illuminate the dark. The nightmare is over, and now no one wants to hear the mention of Massimo Ferrero anymore. The team is safe, the blucerchiati will not go to Serie D: no bankruptcy. “For us it’s like having won two championships,” say the fans.

The day after the sale of the club to Andrea Radrizzani and Matteo Manfredi even the waterfront of the Ligurian capital seems calmer, even brighter.
Only the president Marco Lanna is still out of breath and the phone keeps ringing.

For him, the last two days have been hard, endless, almost bloody: “There are still many things to do. We have to work hard. But we have averted the greatest danger”. It took 40 million euros, a capital increase approved unanimously.

Sampdoria will restart from Serie B after this year’s relegation. He will do it with three, maybe four penalty points for not paying wages on time. Details. The substance is another. “We are happy, it has been intense days, we have to thank all the parties involved,” said Lanna. The Sampdoria-colored part of the city, which in the space of a few hours was seen to sink and then be reborn, which had already had to deal with the eternal rival – Genoa – promoted to Serie A, can now breathe a sigh. Indeed, he can dream.

Manfredi and Radrizzani are the heads of two different investment companies, Gestio Capital and Aser Group.

The better known of the two is Radrizzani, the man who has lived with interests in the world of football for years. Founder of the Eleven Sports network, owner of Leeds (alert: it has just relegated from the Premier League to the Championship), financier of eSports. The other evening Radrizzani immediately made inroads into the hearts of the people: “The history and the coat of arms of Sampdoria are safe and I think my happiness is that of all the people who were suffering for these colors”. He, 48, defines himself as a self-made man. He started from Rho, the poisonous Milan, moved to China where he began to take his first steps in media management, and got to the point of being able to afford the most loco coach there is: Marcelo Bielsa. “He charges, but that money is worth it all”.

Sampdoria was waiting for just one like this, capable of shots and magic. In 2014, when Massimo Ferrero arrived, the Italian comedy began. Of those that start well, they make you smile, but the endings are always a tragedy. After two years she had the audacity: “Before me the club was known between Recco and Chiavari. Now the world is talking about it.” He made shows, blitz on TV (see Beasts: he got up during the interview and left the studio), vitriolic statements (“Lanna is the worst president in the history of Sampdoria” or “The fans feel they are the owners of the club. work,” he said recently). Melodramas, too, in line with the vocation for cinema. In 2019 he took sir Claudio Ranieri. The same one who in these hours has not even wanted to name him “because that character there doesn’t give a damn if Sampdoria goes to the third series or twenty-seventh, he wants the money”.
Twelve years, those of Ferrero at Sampdoria, all lived recklessly. He wanted an exaggerated life. Like Steve McQueen. But with another phisique du role, another material.

At TeleNord, while Radrizzani closed the deal and the party began for Genoa, Ferrero left the scene. “One day you will regret Ferrero: history will prove me right”.