Matteo Berrettini and the English national team: the two reactions to defeat and the art of knowing how to lose (and not to gnaw or at least not to point it out)

Parade first, along that white box and turquoise that someone pushed in the middle of the meadow. They advance one after the other. With low eyes and a straight face. They shake hands, iron lips in smiles of circumstance. Then they stretch their necks in favor of the owner of steam, the president of UEFA Alexander Ceferin. The silver medal does not have time to touch their sternum that they have already taken off. Street. From the neck, from the mind, from the memory. Down, in the bottom of some drawer, at the end of some albums by remember that no one will want to open anymore. It’s a movement that almost all the players of the National Three Lions. Yet. It’s still. It’s still. Faster and faster, always with greatest annoyance. But it is also a gesture that tells a lot about how theEngland welcomed the defeat against Italy in the final of Euro 2020. And not in a good way.

Because it is the result of an error of rating, of an excess of confidence, of whole days spent singing “It’s coming home”, The cup is on its way home. Until’collective self-conviction, to the shared certainty that that victory was somehow due, dowry of a ineluctable fate more for others than for themselves. The blue victory instead brought that anarchy into UK that longed for the Sex Pistols. It has crumbled certainties, shattered an already pre-packaged narrative. And for this she was rejected by the soccer players British. In that taking off the medal there is much of an era where there is no room for the seconds, where the victory must always be sparkling, where the successes are valid only if accumulated. It is a gesture that denotes endurance for the verdict of the field, which translates into coarse nervousness. And that is precisely the point. Yesterday in London the Italians discovered themselves more british of the British. At least in sports. A few hours earlier, twenty kilometers away, Matteo Berrettini had lost the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic.

The cold reality had overwhelmed him after the heat of a first victorious set. The truth on the other hand was difficult to to reject. Also because he was there for all to see: the Serbian had simply been stronger. A concept not easy to swallow for a boy who at twenty-five was projected into the history of his country. Only at the end of the game Berrettini stopped in front of cameras with the smile on their lips and the relaxed face of someone who is aware of having brought home an extraordinary result. “I’m sensations incredible, perhaps too many to handle. Even in this Novak was better than me – he said – he is writing the history of this sport and he deserves everything. It was great to be here. It just took that extra step that was missing. I congratulate the team of Novak, good luck for everything”. Another ace. Only this time to splash away a incredible speed it is not a ball, but the non-trivial words of a boy who knows he still has a great future ahead of him.

A Wembley the exact opposite happened. Italy has raised the cup in one to the sky empty stage, where the winner was not recognized as the strongest (or at least the most deserving), but how mood breaker, intruder. For one evening the British took the place of French who get pissed off at the famous song by Paolo Conte. That slipping off the medal means not legitimize the victory of others, but also somehow not giving proper weight to one’s own I walk. It’s a step back. Because we had had at least two great lessons in the past few weeks defeat. The first with the kiss of Pep Guardiola to the silver medal after losing the final of Champions League against the Chelsea. A spontaneous gesture for his supporters and artificial for his detractors, which he had divided but which had had the merit of opening a debate on the relativization of success. The second had arrived a few days ago, from another Spaniard. After losing on penalties a semifinal that perhaps deserved to win Luis Enrique not only had he complimented Italy. But he had publicly announced that in the final he would cheer on his team executioners. All this was lost last night on the green grass of Wembley. Indeed, a concept rather known than from these has reaffirmed itself latitudes it was condensed in the sentence: “Winning is the only thing that matters”. The gesture of the British reminded us that this is not the case, that silver can be as precious as gold if transformed into a starting point for victory future, if they lay the foundation for one culture capable of going beyond the immediate, beyond the result of one game. One time Sir Winston Churchill he said: “Italians lose football matches as if they were wars and they lose wars as if they were football matches”. Rightly he had not yet seen the national team Gareth Southgate.

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