There was war, on 7 November 1944. Luigi Riva, known to all as Gigi, was born in Leggiuno, in the province of Varese. Football has been in his life since his early years then, in '53, the first drama of his life: his father Ugo dies in a work accident. Mother Edis has to get busy and Gigi enters boarding school in Viggiù.

But it is in his Leggiuno, with San Primo, that he wears his first shirt as a footballer. Then the move to Laveno Mombello. It is here that for the first time he ends up in the notebooks of the "greats" of Italian football. Inter notice it, but nothing is done about it. He remained where he was, before the call from Legnano, Serie C, which arrived in 1962: he signed his first contract, but it was a parenthesis in a dramatic period, marked by the death of his mother.

It is his sister Fausta who welcomes him under her wing, like a second mother. In the meantime his left-handedness began to impress and amaze, and in a few months in Legnano they realized they had a jewel in their hands. Not just them. Gigi joins the Junior National Team. And the big names like it, they like it a lot.

But Cagliari notices him and wants to bring him to Sardinia as soon as possible. For this reason, the blitz carried out during the interval of the junior national team's match against Spain of the same age, played in March 1963 at the Flaminio stadium in Rome, when the rossoblù vice-president Arrica snatched the decisive "yes" from him, enters into the legend of Italian football.

Riva made his debut with Cagliari in the 1963-1964 cadet championship. Since then he will never take off the rossoblù shirt - with the unmistakable number 11, ever again.

There will be 315 appearances lined up year after year and 164 goals scored by what Gianni Brera will not hesitate to nickname Thunderclap, when Cagliari won at San Siro against Inter and the master of sports journalism wrote: «Cagliari he immediately attacked and humiliated Inter at San Siro. Over 70 thousand spectators: Riva deserved them, which I nickname here Rombo di Tuono».

A career that culminated with the Scudetto – incredible, unforgettable – in 1970, with Riva who was both striker and leader for Cagliari.

Even in the national team, of course, Gigi makes his roar heard: 42 appearances and 35 goals. An average you wouldn't believe. And with the Azzurri he won the 1968 European Championship and took part in the Mexico 70 expedition, which saw Italy defeated in the final by Brazil.

He left football in 1977. But he remained in Cagliari. Because Sardinia, no, he never left it. And now that he is no longer there, Sardinia will not leave him. And not to forget it. Never.

(Unioneonline/lf)

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