In Cagliari for 55 years, 13 of which on the pitch with the Cagliari shirt. A scudetto won, a promotion to Serie A centered in the twilight of a career that already promised more than well in Florence, with Viola. Distinguishing marks: Venetian. But Mario Brugnera had almost forgotten about it.

"After all this time I really believe I'm from Cagliari," he says. «My children and grandchildren were born here and then a large part of my career as a player and the Scudetto have inextricably linked me to this land».

Superfluous question, which was also asked by a group of friends and former comrades with whom he meets in the morning in Sant'Elia: who will you be rooting for tomorrow between Cagliari and Venice? «It's obvious, for my Cagliari. My sister is still in Venice, but she doesn't follow football. It is now my only link with the city where I was born. But I have the Cagliari shirt on my skin, I think I'm above all suspicion".

Mario Brugnera won't be at the Domus tomorrow: «When I see the pitch, my heart starts beating too fast. I will watch the game at home. I'm sure Cagliari will pass in the end: the morale of the whole environment is at a thousand, at least since Ranieri's return. And then the stadium will be a bedlam. My daughter will go with my grandchildren.'

© Riproduzione riservata