René Casamatta has been dusting off his camera for ten years to get back to work. Every weekend, he walks Land of Upper Corsica. From Liga 2 to the Regional 1this discreet enthusiast maintains the memory of the island’s football.
Few people today can boast of having seen Lev Yachine evolve on a football pitch.
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René Casamatta, a great football fan, had the opportunity to attend the final of the European Nations Championship in 1960, in the ancient Parc des Princes, between the USSR and Yugoslavia. In the Soviet cages, the goalkeeper, future Ballon d’Or France Football wins the competition with his selection. As a teenager, René Casamatta experienced an extraordinary moment, the kind of moment that strengthens or gives birth to vocations.
A few years later, it is in a much more confidential and rural environment that the young student discovers a new passion: photography. “I was accompanied by Pierre Graziani, he says with great emotion when he talks about his friend. We were participating in an interview tournament in central Corsica, I took my first ever photo at that time, with an old camera. A Kodak Brownie. The photo was developed and published in the Le Provençal newspaper. This is how I opened the doors to the profession of photographer. “
From 1967 to 1971, he who pursues higher studies in science in Marseille will draw for the Corsican edition of the Provençal. Trained on the job, with the invaluable help of Gérard Koch, a photographer with a long career, he takes his first steps in printing. “At the time they paid us 6 francs per photo, he remembers. It had nothing to do with today’s profession. There were many hours of work, but that didn’t scare me. I remember that the envelope of the photographs had to be delivered to a driver who took them to Poretta airport in the direction of Marseille. In two hours we had to develop the photos and send them. In matches we only took a maximum of 40 photos, today, with digital cameras, we can take as many as we want. “
Tireless photographer of the amateur world
His career as a press photographer will be short. Having reached the end of his university career, he chose to become a professor of mathematics. A career that he will carry out almost in the same place: the “old high school”, the Simon-Vinciguerra boarding school in Bastia. From that moment on he abandoned photography, but not his passion for football. Man is a walking encyclopedia, who remembers every game, every detail.
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His love for the SCB will also prompt him to return to service many years later … “One day, shortly after my retirement from teaching, I ran into Francis Muraccioli (SCB forward between 1959 and 1966) in the rue de l’Opéra (Rue Campinchi de Bastia). He told me about Vic Nuremberg (former glory of OGC Nice, passed from SEC Bastia in 1963-1964, ed). I then contacted the attacker and he sent me a disk containing hundreds of old photographs. From there, I reached out to many other former SECB 1960s players, such as Joseph Viacara and Freddy Gandolfi, to collect as many photos as possible. “
Full of films and negatives, René decides to use the Internet to better preserve all the images. And share this true treasure.
In the late 2000s, she created her own blog * which she continues to nurture to this day. She first recorded her photos from the Provençal era there. What to remember so many memories, and rediscover documents of inestimable value. “My best photo? I think it’s Claude Papi at the Vélodrome. Furiani has been suspended … does it surprise you ?, he laughs. He was against Nantes in the league in 1970. He carries the ball and is surrounded by two Nantes players. This player was of absolute class, he was magnificent in handling the ball. “
If at first he is content to list, sort and digitize the photos, it is by arguing with Jérôme Negroni, mayor of San Lurenzu – René’s wife is from Aiti, the neighboring village – that he is encouraged to take back his device.
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Since then, this likeable character has walked the grounds of the Bastia region every weekend. Sporting obviously follows Armand-Cesari, also in Borgo where he is always welcomed at home. But René is particularly fond of amateur football.
Always present, but always discreet, over time he has known every player, every coach, every manager. “For me, football is universal. The regional level, the youth, is the very essence of this sport. There are many players on the island and he is a kind of Corsican football soul who lives on the fields. “
With his thousands of photos, invested with a mission, René Casamatta regularly updates his blog and continues to enrich it with the aim of one day offering the entire collection to the departmental archives, in order to never lose traces of the past.
* corsicafoot.canalblog.com If you want to get in touch: rené[email protected]
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