A long round of applause greeted the release of the coffin after the funeral of the red, blue and blue champion to the tune of Piero Marras’ song “When Gigi Riva will return”. Also holding the coffin was 2006 world champion goalkeeper Gigi Buffon. Cagliari teammates in tears, from Copparoni to Greatti. The chant “Gigi Gigi” rose from the crowd. Then the moving chorus of the fans of the Curva Nord began with the scarves of the ultras. “One Gigi Riva, there is only one Gigi Riva” they sang before the coffin was placed on the car headed to the monumental cemetery of Bonaria.
Thirty thousand people were present in the churchyard of the Basilica of Bonaria in Cagliari for the final farewell. The crowd is crowded on the barriers. Among those present were also the children of the football school founded in the late seventies by Gigi Riva. “Here – explained one of the instructors, Emanuele Cuccu – to introduce even the youngest to the example of this champion. Bye Gigi”.
Coni president Giovanni Malagó, baronet Gianfranco Zola, Gianluigi Buffon and the entire delegation of Italy’s 2006 world champions took their places inside the church. A scarf greeted the arrival of the body. Flags and banners color the churchyard of the basilica. The mayor of Cagliari Paolo Truzzu also arrived at the church and joined the other first citizens who arrived in the capital from all over Sardinia.
The homily. “Sport as life, art, discipline, shared passion, which cannot be bought. Sport is joy, a gift from the Creator: all this is celebrated in Gigi Riva, the sporting merits and the greatness of man, the presence of today of many friends and admirers”. Thus began the homily of the Archbishop of Cagliari, Giuseppe Baturi, at Riva’s funeral. “There are many images of these days that celebrate the beauty and power of Riva, his exultation with his long arms in the sky. Run again and still keep your arms high in the sky, run and look up, in the sky with your parents and your beloved sister.”
His son Nicola. “No one convinced my father, even yesterday he left as he wanted, he was hombre vertical until the end and even yesterday he decided what he wanted to do”. Nicola Riva, Gigi Riva’s eldest son, thus concluded the final farewell at the funeral in the Basilica of Bonaria.
Riva will be buried in the monumental cemetery of Bonaria, in a chapel right next to the Basilica that hosts the funeral, in private. The body of the blue and red-blue champion will be transferred immediately after the celebration of the mass.
THE VIDEO OF THE FUNERAL
Many also wanted to say goodbye to Gigi Riva at the funeral home, with lines over a kilometer long.
From the federal president, Gabriele Gravinato the Italian coach Luciano Spallettipassing through the 2006 world champions: the FIGC delegation, which arrived in Cagliari late in the morning, paid homage to Gigi Riva, first with its presence at the funeral home and in the afternoon with its presence at the funeral of the absolute top scorer in the history of the national team. With Gravina, the FIGC delegation arriving from Rome includes Matteo Marani and Giancarlo Abete, presidents respectively of the Lega Pro and the Dilettanti, the former n.1 of the federation, Franco Carraro, Spalletti with the Italian team manager and 2006 world champion Gigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro who was captain of that Italy, and then Simone Perrotta, Marco Amelia, Angelo Peruzzi, Marco Tardelli and Giancarlo De Sisti. The president of CONI Giovanni Malagò will also participate in the funeral.
Video Riva, Spalletti: ‘A hero who didn’t want the spotlight’
“Heroes like Riva will never stop being close to us: he had this great quality of being humble and respectable. He had the characteristic of being a protagonist without wanting to attract the spotlight to himself. For him, his loved ones and his friends were important. His behavior after the World Cup victory is emblematic: he disappears to leave the light to others”, said Spalletti. “The nickname – he added – says a lot: his shot and his moral value made more noise than his words “.
Video Kilometers of queue for the last tribute to Riva, thousands at the funeral home
“Gigi Riva has deep roots in the past, in the present and which we want to project into the future. I believe that football cannot afford to abandon the spirit that Gigi Riva embodied and which I believe is appreciated by all football fans of any shirt and by all athletes and a good part of the national community”, said the Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, to the reporters who were waiting for him outside the funeral home set up at the Unipol Domus. “The solemn funeral was proclaimed precisely because it recognizes not only the sporting aspect but also the moral aspect which objectively is not widespread in this time”, he concluded.
The president of CONI was also at the funeral home Giovanni Malagò. “Objectively I struggle to find someone who, in the world of sport, was more upright than him from all points of view. Then someone says ‘those were different times’, but I think that today, but also in a thousand years, he would be That was the case anyway,” he said. “He is a heritage of the world of football but also of Italian sport – he added – he will remain here in Sardinia and I believe that he will become a place of pilgrimage”
For further information Agenzia ANSA Farewell to Gigi Riva, the greatest striker of the national team – Indices – Ansa.it Rombo di Tuono remains the greatest Italian striker with 35 goals and number 11 in Cagliari’s 1970 championship (ANSA)
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2024-01-24 16:45:00
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