The free gentleman
Defender and gentleman, interpreter of a role that no longer exists, the free. Gaetano Scirea, Juventus flag at the turn of the seventies and eighties, would have turned 70 today if fate had not entered his life with a straight leg on the streets of Poland in the autumn of 1989 when he was just 36 years old.
READ HERE: Scirea, the discreet and silent champion who just wanted to play football
The accident
It was 3 September 1989 when Scirea, assistant coach of Juventus at the time, was going to see a game of Gornik Zabrze, which in the following days the bianconeri would face in the UEFA Cup. During the return journey to Warsaw, from where he was to take a plane back to Turin, the Polski Fiat 125p in which he was traveling with the local driver, the interpreter and a Gornik executive was rear-ended by a van and caught fire. The flames were fed by the four petrol cans crammed into the trunk in case of need. Only the leader of the Poles, seated in the front seat, was saved because he managed to get out of the passenger compartment. Scirea was immediately taken to the hospital, but by now there was nothing more that could be done.
The announcement on TV, so the son knew it
There was no internet and the news reached Italy only several hours after the accident. It was Sandro Ciotti at Domenica Sportiva who announced his death to the dismay of the studio guests including former teammate Marco Tardelli, who burst into tears. His son Riccardo was also in front of the TV, who thus learned of his father’s tragic death.
READ HERE, the interview with his wife: “We and our pink car, I visit him every day”
Blame a trip that shouldn’t have been there
Years later, Scirea’s son recounted that his father would have gladly done without that trip: «Shortly before he had already seen the Poles play and for this reason he was reluctant to return to Poland. But Boniperti, as a perfectionist that he was, was adamant. So he complied and then we all know how it went. That cursed evening my mother was right at Anna Zoff’s house, Dino’s wife. They waited together for their husbands to return. Mom waited in vain. First they told her a lie, then a half-truth, finally they confessed to her the disaster. It was terrible.’
Working-class family, his wife in Parliament
Scirea was born on May 25, 1953 in Cernusco sul Naviglio, near Milan. His father Stefano, of Sicilian origins, was a worker at Pirelli. He was the third of four brothers and in 1976, at the age of 23, he married Mariella Cavanna, then a member of parliament for Forza Italia and Udeur between 1994 and 2001. Riccardo was born from the marriage, the couple’s only son, who later became a coach and now Juventus match analyst.
The debut as a striker, the poster of Suarez
Before arriving at big football, Scirea began at the Serenissima San Pio X in Cinisello Balsamo. He played in attack, scored a lot and dreamed of wearing the number 10 shirt one day. Like that of his idols Gianni Rivera and Luis Suarez, whose posters he had hanging in his room. Thus it was that he got the first tryout for Atalanta and then all the rest.
Juve, Heysel, Mundial
Mario Sconcerti, in one of his portraits, described Scirea as “an attacking midfielder in his penalty area”. He was elegant with his number 6 shirt and a great player’s technique. Leader of few words, he had great tactical sense and game vision and it was often he, ball and chain, who set up the action like a modern defender. Raised with images of Herrera’s Grande Inter, he arrived at Juventus in 1974 and remained there until he retired. In the 14 black and white seasons he played 377 matches, scored 24 goals and won everything (7 league titles, one Champions Cup, one Intercontinental Cup, one UEFA Cup, one Cup Winners’ Cup, two Italian Cups). He was also on the pitch on the night of May 29, 1985, when 39 people died and 600 were injured at the Heysel in Brussels. He made his debut in the national team in 1975 and was one of the great protagonists of the victory of the 1982 World Cup in Spain which consecrated him among the strongest defenders in the world. As captain, he also led the Azzurri to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, which closed in the round of 16 against France.
Never a red card. That sedate brawl…
In his career he has never been sent off. Scirea always showed great respect for referees and opponents. Among the many stories handed down by former teammates, that of a very hot Fiorentina-Juventus, a challenge that is never banal. A fight was flaring up in midfield after a foul in midfield. Tempers instantly heated up, but Scirea caught up with his companions and shouted: ‘Aren’t you ashamed? In the stands there are our wives, our children and the other fans who are watching us». And the situation was back under control in a few moments.
Tennis with Platini
At the end of his career, when the time to devote to football began to shrink and leave room for some hobbies, Scirea decided to try his hand at tennis, a passion he had been cultivating for some time. «He wanted to learn how to play it – his son Riccardo recounted in an interview – and with his mother they went to the Match Ball club together with Platini who was also good with the racket. Dad, on the other hand, was a beginner but an athlete and in the end he won everything, even bowls, canasta or ping pong».
The controversy with the curve
In 2014 a group of Juventus Ultras entered into controversy with Scirea’s wife who had stigmatized their behavior and some boorish chants, threatening to remove her husband’s name from the curve. The controversy escalated in the following weeks.
