Mario Sconcerti left us suddenly. The world of sports journalism loses one of its most iconic and recognized signatures, Calciomercato.com loses a friend who believed in the project. “Mario has always been a forerunner, because he has always been able to propose innovative initiatives, imagining new communication scenarios. And he has always been very curious about new things. For this reason we were lucky and happy that he chose us”. To tell it, with a voice broken by emotion, is Charles Pallavicinipublisher of Calciomercato.com who fondly recalls Sconcerti and the beginning of his collaboration with our magazine: “Ten years ago he came to our editorial office and gave a journalism lesson to the editors present, leaving everyone speechless. On that occasion he said that since Gutenberg no means of communication had been defeated, but he was certain that the internet would represent a turning point and he was happy to contribute to our growth, also giving advice on journalists who could help grow by bringing CM to have legitimacy outside the internet, a brand of recognition“.
Sconcerti left all the editors present stunned on that occasion, but a ‘vice’ did not allow him to be physically present in the editorial office anymore: “He promised to come back, but having left an ashtray full of cigarettes, he worried those in the editorial office who particularly suffered from smoking“, Pallavicino tells the anecdote with a melancholy smile.
In his career Sconcerti has brought many innovations to any magazine with which he has collaborated and with Calciomercato.com he has not been outdone, introducing the section of 100th Minutes. But how did the idea come about? Pallavicino explains it: “The idea was born in his house in Rome, where he always received me and the Director and inexorably we ended up in the kitchen each time to make ourselves a coffee”. A non-random drink, because “from there the idea of the ‘Cappuccino con Sconcerti was also born‘”, admits Pallavicino. Who continues: “Mario, with the idea of 100th minute, wanted to relaunch the commentary of the great journalist, because on the internet the matches were not reported as in the newspapers. It was a very nice experiment and it brought historic names in journalism into contact with our site, some of which still collaborate with us today”.
Ideas and innovation, but at the basis of everything there was another quality that had led Sconcerti to get closer and closer to Calciomercato.com: “The coolest thing about Mario was his curiosity about our site. She said she read it constantly to inform herself and work. She considered it a site that had not only made the history of the internet, but that had known how to evolve to become the first Italian online newspaper from the news agency it was “.
Even a divisive character, but always followed by everyone: “Lately he had been the subject of many accusations, ungenerous by our users. He had never cared about them, however it is clear that in a tiring period of his life this too led him to interrupt the ‘Cappuccino'”. But not the collaboration with Calciomercato.comwhich he carried on until the end by editing the column with Furio Zara. Because ideas can never stop.
“I just re-read your last message, after the article with which I thanked him at the end of the adventure with the Cappuccino. He wrote to me: “It’s the best thing in my professional life. Thank you very much. I will look at the site today more than ever, with a professional eye, precisely because I will no longer have the weight of the idea and the piece. Let’s start over together, from ideas. Hi Mario”.
And now it’s us who say ‘hello’ to Mario, with the bitterness and pain of no longer being able to count on a friend who helped Calciomercato.com to become great: “To say that he will be missed is obvious. With him as well as his friend, the master who with his always original ideas taught us to fight banality and clichés goes away“, concludes Carlo Pallavicino melancholy.
The biggest hug from the whole Calciomercato.com family goes to the Sconcerti family.
