Francesco Guccini, curious about football and a great lover of it

The passing of Francesco Guccini also strikes a chord with sports fans, especially football fans, who are the overwhelming majority. Francesco Guccini was curious about football, even though he wasn't exactly a fan. It's said that the great singer-songwriter's curiosity was piqued by Pistoiese's historic arrival in Serie A in the 1980-81 season. Guccini lived permanently in Pavana, a hamlet in the municipality of Sambuca Pistoiese, in the province of Pistoia. It was inevitable that he would be drawn into the popular celebration. But his attention was drawn to the story of Luis Silvio Danuello, a young Brazilian midfielder who was played as a center forward, and whose expectations were shattered by a tactical error, to the point where he ended his Italian career with just six appearances and no goals, with a brief stint in a bar in Pistoia before catching a plane back to Brazil. With Guccini, we ended up talking football at the dinner table rather than on the couch. And at the Maestro's house – as reported by Gazzetta dello Sport – even Maurizio Sarri, the current coach of Atalanta, once ended up there, brought there by a football and music enthusiast like Marino Bartoletti. It happened a few years ago, shortly before the coach signed with Juventus. Thus, Sarri was able to discuss with his idol how a song is born, while Guccini scoured the football world, asking about Cristiano Ronaldo and the Scudetto favorites. Even young players have not escaped the charm and lure of the Modena-born poet. In 2021, Paolo Faragò, who moved from Cagliari to Bologna, chose the number 43 shirt in honor of the famous address of "Via Paolo Fabbri 43," which was Guccini's Bologna home and gave its title to the album containing the famous "L'avvelenata." More recently, midfielder Hans Nicolussi Caviglia had expressed a desire to attend a Guccini concert. He'll have to settle for listening to his music and interpretations on YouTube.