Sampdoria, the arrest, the cinema. End of the adventure of Viperetta- Corriere.it

With the passage to Andrea Radrizzani, the tormented adventure of Massimo Ferrero at Sampdoria. After his arrest on the morning of 6 December 2021 on charges of fraudulent bankruptcy and other non-football corporate crimes, the club also had to face various difficulties: entrusted to a trustee, there were lengthy negotiations in the past to find a buyer, there was talk of the commitment of Gianluca Vialli, then this year Sampdoria was relegated to Serie B.

Ferrero had bought Sampdoria in June 2014 from the Garrone family. Romano di Testaccio, 70 years old in August, independent film producer since 1994. His curriculum vitae includes many films such as Mery forever and Boys out and many Italian comedies including Mani di Velluto, The duck with orange and numerous films by Tinto Brass.

Nicknamed er Viperetta (he claims that an affectionateness invented by Monica Vitti, but few believe him), a close friend – anyone who frequents him swears – of Sylvester Stallone, owner of the Adriano cinema in Rome and controls over 60 cinemas in Italy, mostly bought cheaply by the Cecchi Gori group as well as cheaply – better: free of charge, taking on the 15 million debts – took over the Blucerchiato club from the Garrones. I come from nowhere and I bought Sampdoria because after her there is nothingness, said the entrepreneur, who has been a fan of Roma since he was a child.

Son of a tram driver who devoted himself to books, stamps, anything but the tram and with his mother, the daughter of street vendors, he said he wanted to be a dancer: On Sundays I went tap dancing at Bar Veneto. I also tried to enter the Pavone ballet, supporting myself by being a butcher, I brought the meat into the houses. I had a friend with a bike with a rack and one day I stole it from him.

From there, he says, his luck: A Fiat 1100 starts ringing for me, I thought it was for the bicycle and instead it was Blasetti’s assistant director who advised me to go to San Saba Palatino where they chose extras. There were only well-groomed kids, but Blasetti sees me: “Are you capable of whistling?”. “I learned my craft”. I had to be a baker, brother of Giovanna Ralli. So, then, he became production inspector with the major Italian directors, and producer, in fact. Married for the first time to Laura Sini, an entrepreneur in the dairy sector – It’s not true that she gave me the money to buy the first cinemas – with a divorce that was not without legal aftermath, now linked to Manuela Ramunni. He has four children: Vanessa (also arrested), Michela, Emma and little Rocco. In the past he attempted a daredevil adventure with the airline Livingstonspecialized in charters in the Caribbean islands, badly shipwrecked, creating a hole of 20 million euros and some judicial misadventures, concluded by negotiating a sentence of one year and 10 months precisely for fraudulent bankruptcy.

More troubles came in 2016 when he was accused of building abuse in the attic in Parioli, in his home in via Torquato Taramelli, a building which, moreover, had been seized for tax reasons. He was sentenced to 4 months’ imprisonment. Plus other accusations for the Obiang case: over a million proceeds from the sale of the footballer, in 2015, would have been illegally distracted by Er Viperetta for private purposes.