Bologna, 27 September 2023 – “Gazzoni and Saputo, two gentlemen, two very great presidents. Will I be the last custodian of this stadium? Maybe, but if they ask me I’ll go ahead.” Maurizio Savi has 25 years to tell, a lifetime indeed. The historic custodian of the Dall’Ara stadium is the protagonist of our podcast today. True anecdotes, from the away bus ladders to the closed the changing rooms. “I started in June 1998, it was truly a wonderful adventure”, he says in his office covered with visual memorabilia: there are Cremonini, Vasco, the Divine Codino, Beppe, the president Joey, his idols and also his motto: in life you just need to have patience. Under the post-it, he playfully displays a baseball bat. We jokingly ask for reassurance. He laughs. “I’ve always had a lot of patience.”
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Maurizio Savi, 25 years as caretaker of Dall’Ara
The journey, as a child, started from Calderara. Then the Barca village, the stadium with dad. So a job that becomes his life. Seven presidents in 25 years, around twenty coaches. “I had a special relationship with Mazzone, he treated everyone as equals. As Saputo does, they are similar. From that fabulous year of the UEFA Cup run I remember the laughter on the team bus, the players took the microphone one by one one and they imitated Mazzone. The craziest? Fontolan. Then too bad for Moscow, also because I’m sure of it: Gazzoni would have taken us all with him, to win.” People come into Savi’s office all the time, the stadium has a lot of activity inside. “It’s a condominium, as I told Saputo when he asked me why I always use the toy car to get around – Savi continues –. After Bologna-Cagliari I made another joke to him, he told me: ‘Maurizio, don’t lose the keys’. And I said to him: ‘President, don’t lose your wallet’. It took him a moment to understand, then he punched me and laughed with me.”
Savi has historically only missed one game in 25 years. With a justification signed by the family. “It was a Bologna-Crotone match in Serie B, on the day of my daughter’s wedding. I followed the match on the radio, at the table, I confess. But with the second goal conceded I threw everything away. The best memory? As I said , the Bologna of Gazzoni and Mazzone, what a team of great men. The greatest emotion? Every day for me is an emotion here. The best coach Bologna has had in recent years – he continues -? For me Guidolin, analyzed every opponent’s thing, he was maniacal.” Finally the future. “There will be restyling work and perhaps the new stadium, which will be very different from this one, won’t need a single custodian in the old way – closes Savi with a hint of melancholy –. I could be the last, after all I’m in retirement age, but if they ask me I could stay, why not. I certainly know that I have been a lucky man.”
2023-09-27 03:08:26
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