Archive for the 'Giovani' Category

There are extraordinarily authentic stories, which time consigns to oblivion, until, in the meanders of memory, someone finds the courage to sink to bring them back to light. This is the case of the journalist Francesco Veltri from Cosenza, Italy, who, with a book, intense and exciting, entitled Il mediano di Mauthausen published by Darkos (a publishing house that is part of the prestigious Gruppo Rusconi), tells about the footballer Vittorio Staccione.

But Staccione is no ordinary footballer, not because he has played in Cosenza, as well as Torino and Fiorentina. This little great champion, in fact, just thirty-one years old leaves football so as not to bow his head in front of the horror that was devastating the world. A courageous choice that, unfortunately, will prove fatal for his life because in a short time it will lead him to the terrible extermination camp of Mauthausen where he will be killed by the Nazis.

The course of days, as a boy, changed positively on a cold winter afternoon in 1915. He had just turned eleven and was playing football with his friends in a bumpy field in the working-class district in Turin, when he was noticed by Enrico Bachmann, the legendary captain of Torino. In just a few years, that humble little man, who was a midfielder and sacrificed his role, became an important part of his city’s team, until he won the Scudetto together with champions like Libonatti, Baloncieri and Rossetti.

But Vittorio also alternated his passion for football with his passion for politics. The social struggles within the factories and the growing poverty led the young and pure Turin footballer not to bow his head in the face of all kinds of abuse, especially in the years when fascism began to become increasingly present in our country. In 1927 he was hired by the ambitious Fiorentina of Marquis Luigi Ridolfi, a close friend of the Duce’s, who was loved by the fans, but this did not prevent him from suffering countless intimidations. In 1931, and for three seasons, he played in the red and blue Cosenza football jersey.

The book written by Francesco Veltri is a passionate journalistic investigation that is mixed with history, a publication enriched by unpublished photos provided by the Staccione family to honor the great Vittorio with the collaboration, in particular, of Federico Molinaro, great-grandson of the footballer. Eraldo Pecci, who wrote the preface of the book, also pays tribute to him