A year without Gigi Riva: the memory in the crowded Bonaria basilica

A sober celebration, as the family requested and as he would have wanted. It is the mass in memory of Gigi Riva, exactly one year after the death of the Myth, underway at the Basilica of Nostra Signora di Bonaria. Strictly full, already a quarter of an hour before the scheduled time of 6:00 pm.

In the front row the family, from his wife Gianna to his sons Mauro and Nicola. Then a delegation from Cagliari Calcio, led by president Tommaso Giulini together with some managers, coach Davide Nicola with his assistant Simone Barone and several players from the first team, including Leonardo Pavoletti, Alessandro Deiola, Gianluca Lapadula, Nicolas Viola, Gabriele Zappa, Gianluca Gaetano and the latest arrival Elia Caprile. With them the mayor of Cagliari Massimo Zedda, the municipal councilor for Sport Giuseppe Macciotta, the director of the documentary “Nel nostro cielo un Rombo di Tuono” Riccardo Milani, the former teammates of the Mito Pino Bellini, Renato Copparoni, Adriano Reginato and Beppe Tomasini, lifelong friends. And many fans, who did not want to miss a heartfelt event.

"Gigi is a national hero, even more than a Cagliari hero", the message from Leonardo Pavoletti. "We are proud to have lived it, to have heard the stories and to be able to take Cagliari even higher".

"A good man, discreet, reserved, of silence," said Father Arcangelo Bonu from the altar, during the mass. "We must move from football to Christian life: he was a simple boy, a humble man who overcame many difficulties and had a particular charisma. He was sent to Cagliari, where at the time players were sent as punishment, and he found his family: the Sardinians, who always loved him . And he always refused everything to stay here."

At 6.44 pm a long round of applause marked the end of the ceremony.