SICILY, as we know from childhood, is like a ball kicked by the long leg of the Apennine Peninsula. The Apennines used to do roughly the same thing with Sicilian football. Big football south of Rome started up only with the move to Naples Diego Maradona and ended with his departure. Sicily, however, has always been known in Italian football as a deep periphery, a backwater: if the local teams were knocked out in Serie A, then not for long. In those rare moments when Sicily appeared in football conversations, they were either scandalous or ironic. Palermo first went bankrupt in 1939 - long before it became fashionable in Italy. Katania in 1955 was expelled from Serie A for bribing a judge and his cousin — long before Italy heard the word “Mojigate”. The injured captain of Palermo was arrested in 1980 right on the platform of the stadium for complicity in the affairs of Cosa Nostra. In 1986, Palermo managed to go broke again - they revived it a year later already in the C2 series. The most famous Sicilian footballer Toto Skillaci, during his appearances for Juve and Inter, was repeatedly subjected to racist attacks (“it’s better to be Romanian than Sicilian” - a favorite saying of far-right northerners) and somehow quickly wilted. Tifozi “Verona”, leaving last year to leave for Catania, brought along the banners “Forza, Etna”, urging the volcano overhanging the city to eruption.
However, today, three Sicilian clubs are playing in Serie A at once, two are in the quartet of the best, and one, Palermo, is the opening team for the current European football season. It is tempting to say that this unprecedented football climb symbolizes the general rise of Sicily, one of the poorest regions of Western Europe. But this is not so. Arriving in Palermo for the match “Palermo” - “Inter”, which could lead the Sicilians to the first line of the standings, I found this city in the same romantic devastation that was always inherent in it.
PALERMO is mesmerizing, striking, knocks down. Not only in an allegorical sense, but also, if you gape in the local streets with their incessantly pushing the horn, mentally unbalanced drivers - in the most direct. A three-wheeled clunker with a mountain of garlic in a small body pops up on the oncoming, so as not to miss the turn to the market. The Carabinier girl whistles and waves his baton to him. The clunker driver blows her a kiss and, without slowing down, rushes on.
It is a noisy, dirty, chaotic and inexpressibly charming city. The Palermo Center, built long before the era of typical concrete structures, was catastrophically neglected - but nothing in it is offensive to the eye. Immoderate baroque near the cold Norman hulks. Illuminated by the candles of the Madonna in the niches of the walls, and on the walls - curses against the right and Berlusconi. Endless markets, in the Arabic manner, arranged right on the streets of residential areas, and in the markets - centners of marine life, which would astonish Jacques-Yves Cousteau with its variety. Close noisy eateries with wall photographs of John Paul II and striker "Palermo" Amauri, and in eateries - the strongest espresso in Italy. Houses, like garlands, are hung with clothesline, and they will probably never be removed here, even if they acquire washing machines with spin and drying functions - this is more aesthetically pleasing. By the way, do you want to know where Palermo got these frivolous pink T-shirts with black elements? Initially, red coexisted with black in the colors of the club, but once, at the beginning of the 20th century, t-shirts faded from endless shading.
Despite all this fuss and ruin, Palermo is an extremely relaxed and vibrant city. This is one of the last places in Europe where the tradition of a four-hour siesta has remained unshakable. Not only shops and banks adhere to it, but even loafers with megaphones and red banners protesting against something on the square near the municipality. At exactly 12:30 pm, the protesters turn off their slogans and go out to dinner, so that towards the evening a little more gobbled up “Salario garantito!” (“You give a guaranteed salary!”).
Despite all the efforts made by the Italian government, Palermo will never be completely refurbished and washed: almost all the money allocated for these purposes, barely reaching the city, is successfully plundered. The monumental classicist Teatro Massimo, which opened after 23 years of reconstruction, is one of Europe’s most magnificent operas (it’s a shootout at its massive steps, crowning the saga of the Godfather), the stucco falls off. But when I was invited to a party in the country villa of the deputy director of the theater, I found it suspiciously luxurious for the humble minister of muses. “These statues were stolen by my order,” the deputy director joked, showing me the terrace. But for some reason, there was a feeling that it was not a joke.
Chittavecchia, old Palermo, presents a fair amount of images to illustrate the current state of Italian football, which, despite winning the World Cup, is still far from overcoming the crisis (players continue to leave for England and Spain, and attendance to drop). Here are the amazing Lemoncello palazzos, only without a roof, ceilings and boarded up shutters. Here is the Royal Theater of Santa Cecilia - one of the three grand theaters built in Palermo in the 19th century, not working for a long time and hopelessly launched. At some point, it turned out that the city did not need as many palazzos and so many theaters and there was nothing to support them with. The marble composition from the facade of the Royal Theater has long been taken away for restoration, and now in its place are pale blue cardboard figures.
It takes at least an hour to wander through the narrow streets of the Kals quarter (translated from Arabic - Poor) in order to stumble upon at least one put in order palazzo. It will be an archaeological museum. But even it is not completely restored. But, I bet, its director already has a wonderful country house.
The away VICTORY over Milan in October this year was the first in Palermo’s history. This club, which played in Series B three years ago, has not won a single title in its more than a century-old history and only made its debut in European competitions last season. But now, in December 2006, Palermo confidently follows the top three of Serie A leaders and is reputed to be one of the country's most playing teams. Four Palermo footballers - Grosso, Zaccardo, Barzagli and Barone - became world champions in the Italian national team. And the center forward of “Azzurra Squadra” Luca Toni made a name for himself in Sicily. Arriving to watch the match “Palermo” - “Inter”, which could lead the hosts to the leaders of the championship, I asked about the reasons for this transformation of the club a dozen people. And everyone, starting with Palermo midfielder Marco Bresciano and ending with Ciro, a fish merchant from the port market, began their answer with the name Dzamparini.
Maurizio Zamparini is the owner and president of Palermo, the owner of a large Italian supermarket chain, who once began his career, as usual, with posting pizza. This active and arrogant man became famous in Italian football even before the acquisition of “Palermo” in the summer of 2002 - fame mainly scandalous. He owned Venice, took her out of C2 to Serie A, gave countless conflicting interviews, personally grappled with the discontented management of the Tiffozo club, and once even fired the coach, under whose leadership the team led the standings. In 2002, he completely dismissed the whole city: he sold Venice, bought Palermo and transferred six players from the first club to the second - all more or less worthwhile. From that moment, Palermo went up sharply. And it is still going.
For all its volcanic nature, Zamparini is very prudent in personnel matters. No one really knows the story of his success in business, but everyone now understands that Dzamparini got it not by chance.
“In every personnel step of Palermo in recent years, there may be, perhaps, no doubt, but logic,” Paolo Vannini, the journalist of Corriere dello Sport, tells me. - Zamparini eschews the invitation of age stars from top clubs, which is usually characteristic of clubs with growing ambitions, and systematically buys the leaders of middle teams in the hope of their further growth.
And they are growing. Tony was subsequently sold to Fiorentina, Grosso to Inter, and buyers in Bartsagli, Di Michele and Amauri today were without an account. According to some of his own, never explained reasons, Dzamparini is not inclined to be equipped with legionnaires. Only four foreigners play in Palermo - extremely few in current cosmopolitan times. The names of three of them (Argentinean, Australian and Brazilian, respectively) are Dellafiore, Bresiano and Amauri.
On the Apennines, however, they already started talking about the need to quickly make the latter an Italian, not only by the sound of the surname, but also by passport, and to play for “Azzurra Squadra”.
The heyday of Palermo is undoubtedly partly due to the decline of yesterday’s superclubs (Lazio, Parma, Fiorentina), and with the reference of Juventus to Serie B, and with the decrepit Milan, which is now struggling not so much with with a fine of eight points, how much with your own gaming indistinctness. But still, this cannot be the only thing. It is enough to look at the successes of Palermo in the UEFA Cup or this gambling, uncomplexed, hot football, which the team is showing this season: 4: 3 with Regina, 5: 3 with Catania, 2: 3 with Atalanta and 3: 2 with Fiorentina. Only Palermo seems to be able to lose 0-4 and win 4-0 with an interval of several days - as happened with the Sicilians in December. Today, only Roma plays more fun in Italy.
Zamparini, unlike Berlusconi, Sensi, Della Valle, the ruined Craniotti and the late Agnelli, has no interests in politics, which in many respects fed the football generosity of these people. Why he needs Palermo is not entirely clear. What Dzamparini intends to achieve with this club cannot be understood from his interview. Sometimes he talks about the “challenge” and some kind of sporting ambition, sometimes about business. Of all the economic decisions made by Dzamparini, only one is widely known: he surrounded the “Renzo Barber” with a tall fence in order to finally discourage the southerners' habit of going to football without a ticket. Curious in this regard, Dzamparini’s recent confessions about the reasons for leaving the “Venice” to “Palermo” seem to be due to the “impassiveness, frigidity of Venice in relation to the calcho”. And this is probably the key phrase for understanding his motives. Here, in Sicily, there has never been a big, well, or at least average football. But here, at least, there was always passion.
AN HOUR BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE “Palermo” - “Inter” Match, the stands of “Renzo Barbera” are filled, wrapped in lilac smoke stretching from the fan stand, as well as a thick rumble of conversations. Next to me is a group of dude gentlemen in shirts with collars too large for their necks, and so animatedly helps himself in the conversation with his hands, that from the outside this conversation may seem like a stormy scandal. If I had not already gotten used to this neurotic gesture of the Sicilians, I would surely have thought that his next stage would be snatching out pistols and shooting. The discussion is actually just the composition of the match. From time to time in the conversation the word “scudetto” flashes.
“Give it to me, Bartzagli! Give, give, Bresciano! ”- dudes will scream during the match (this word, as it turns out, is used instead of forza in the Italian south). But Bartsagli will not, and Bresciano, too. Dust Amauri - this will be his sixth goal in the championship, and again handsome. But this is not enough to defeat Inter. First, the 40-year-old goalkeeper of Palermo Fontana will throw a ball under his arm after a long-range shot by Ibrahimovic. And then a brilliant hit in the “nine”, perhaps the best in his life, will deliver a reference midfielder “Inter” Vieira.
As for the “Scudetto," the Signors, of course, got excited - Palermo, with all its sympathy, has not yet had enough power. But the one that is already enough to force Inter to play to the fullest, and Vieira to beat at nine. Leaving the stands, the Signors again vigorously gestured, pressed the word "Interopoli" and, addressing the rostrum of the press, demanded the final eradication of the northern football mafia. The sight of the Sicilians, reproaching the mafia, - it must be said, is quite rare. And for the sake of this, I must say, it was also worth going to Renzo Barber.
- “Palermo” is the only positive event that has occurred with Italian football over the past 10 years, except for the victory in the World Cup. Fresh ambitions, non-trivial ideas, new players, money, in the end, Paolo Vannini bends his fingers. - Just a couple of such teams, and Italy will begin to get out of the crisis.
Paolo also recommends paying attention to the upturn of Catania, a longtime Palermo opponent in the island derby - "they also play entertaining football." If ten years ago someone had said that the health of Italian football would be at least somewhat dependent on Sicily, this would undoubtedly have an ironic connotation. Or even scandalous.
The next morning, having once again lost my way in the old town, I will go out to one of Palermo’s most beautiful and romantic squares: they built such that, with one knee down and one palm resting on one’s heart, singing for a girl somewhere in the upper Amore window. But they don’t sing in this square - they are chasing football. Children in pink T-shirts (most of all with the name "Amauri" on their backs) hit the torn ball against the wall of the 15th century church, on which the gates are marked. A passing carabiner seems to have to slap the back of the head and read the notation on the monuments of history and architecture. But the carabinier recklessly passes the ball flying off to the side and goes further. Catholicism, of course, is still honored here in the most sacred way - the south of Italy has always been more religious than the north. But the calcho in Palermo is already quite a religion.
