It was his cradle, certainly his home for many years. Emiliano Melis, of the Oratory and of the former Don Orione sports center in Selargius knows even the most remote and dusty ravines. And in the dirt field which is accessed from the small entrance in via Rossini, he kicked a ball for the first time, before becoming a professional footballer. His debut in Serie A with the Cagliari shirt in Bologna, in the 1-0 defeat against Bologna on 6 January 2000, was a point of arrival rather than a starting point, given that his career developed in B always with the rossoblù shirt and then in C. But it was undermined by injuries of all kinds, which in some ways compromised a career at the top.
Don Orione however, that house he never left, remained in his heart. Even when, for a decade, the once thriving sports activities have failed. Up to the idea to revive it: «We reached an agreement with the parish for the rent» , says Melis, who is now 44 years old and, together with other partners, runs the Futura football school in Selargius. «So I took over the oratory and, instead of the old dirt field, we built two padel fields, a nine-a-side football field, one for futsal, both in synthetic. It will also be the key to bringing the kids back to the oratory and, who knows, identifying some champions in the very place that consecrated to football, in addition to myself, a player who later made Cagliari history such as Gigi Piras and Nicola Murru, just to mention the two most famous athletes » .
The inauguration of the new sports complex will be held on Thursday at 5.30 pm in the presence of sportsmen and authorities. And – as if by magic – the lights will turn on again on a historical place in the city, perhaps too hastily delivered to decadence.