The Varese Basketball like great love, a passion that goes beyond everything. This is what he feels Stefano Bonfiglio for the red and white colors.
The Milanese entrepreneur, founder and managing partner of the Stirling Square Capital Partners fund, company of private equity based in London which has a total capital exceeding one billion euros, which a few months ago acquired 11.3% of the shares of the Piazzale Gramsci company is told between past, present and future, always in red and white shades and with the basketball as a great passion.
How did your passion for Varese Basketball begin?
“I was a child, I lived in Milan and I played mini basketball and one day I discovered that my refrigerator was called Ignis after an Italian basketball team, namely Pallacanestro Varese. From that moment I started following that fantastic team that wrote the history of Italian and European basketball, I know it sounds funny but it’s like that.”
Who was the player of those years that you particularly admired?
“More than one: from Bob Morse to Dino Meneghin, from Ossola to Yelverton. Unfortunately I couldn’t come to the stadium to watch the matches, from that point of view Varese seemed so far away even though, for me, it has always been close due to the passion with which I followed it. In class at school I had many classmates who supported the then Billy Milano, so I felt this “rivalry” a lot, but not only that, because I also felt a lot of competition with Cantù, because my mother was a Cantù native”.
How has your relationship with basketball and Varese Basketball continued over the years?
“I wasn’t good at playing basketball, but I was lucky enough to attend Georgetown University in America, in Washington, in the years in which it was relaunching itself in an important way in terms of basketball in the hands of coach John Thompson. In the year I was admitted to the University, he recruited the first choice of the high school, namely Patrick Ewing. An extraordinary player, with him we reached the championship final 3 times, winning one and losing the other two against Michael Jordan’s North Carolina and Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston, who I was lucky enough to see live.”
So he was lucky enough to play with Ewing?
“No, unfortunately, because I was on the swimming team at Georgetown, but in doing so I was lucky enough to get to know him as a person since we both attended the athletes section. We created a good relationship, so much so that we met again later in life when he went to New York.”
Has your passion and following for Varese Basketball always remained?
“Absolutely yes, I continued to follow with great attention: I remember very well the Scudetto della Stella, the year of the Unforgettables, to name two years above all, until two years ago when I returned to Italy”.
Here, what happened two years ago?
“My friend Marco Vittorelli, who I have known for 40 years now, who was then still President of Pallacanestro Varese, opened the doors of the red and white world to me: I met Toto Bulgheroni and Luis Scola, with whom I immediately had an excellent relationship. Scola, then, is Argentinian like my wife and his family still remembers perfectly the 2004 Olympics when we were defeated in the final by the Seleççion of which Luis was part. I immediately got on very well with him and decided to become part of this project.”
What convinced you?
“I really like the approach that Scola has to the world of Varese Basketball, not only linked to the First Team but also to the youth teams, to the women’s team, to the wheelchair basketball team. There was a confluence of visions also linked to the sustainability of the project. Passion and people were the most important things that pushed me to start this adventure.”
He decided to make a major investment, acquiring 11.3% of the company shares for a considerable sum. Was it a choice purely dictated by passion or do you think that over time Varese Basketball could become an important asset also in terms of economic return?
“I deal with investments, I manage an institutional fund for which I have fiduciary responsibility, many international pension funds and more, that is my life and I hope to have a return from there. I would be very happy if, following the positive sporting results, Varese Basketball managed to valorise itself economically and then financially. Varese must be among the top 3 Italian teams almost permanently. We hope to be able to achieve this goal but to return to your question, mine is an investment linked to passion rather than to the possible economic return: if it were to arrive, it would mean that we would have done everything else well”.
A choice, that of investing out of passion in a sports club, not so common in today’s world…
“I believe that in the end one does things well when they do them with passion. I give my support to Varese out of passion, I suffer and rejoice for the team’s results, I am very passionate from this point of view. I returned to Italy after 40 years and I would like to be able to leave a mark in the area and it is no coincidence that, in addition to Varese, I have also decided to invest in Club Milano, a company whose project I have embraced for ethical values and respect which distinguish this company and which for me are fundamental.”
How do you evaluate the development that Varese Basketball has had in recent years?
“The company is structuring itself better and better: it invested in the arena with one of our companies, Itelyum, which sponsored it and now we are trying to involve as many companies in the project. I believe that the institutionalization and professionalization of the entire Varese Basketball world is in continuous development, then the First Team can perform more or less well: we know what our shortcomings were last year and then fixed in the second half of the year, this year we have already intervened during the race. For me, this season is more of an adjustment to understand many things well, then from this spring we will start to get serious, also talking about an increase in investment level. There is a lot at stake in trying to make society increasingly virtuous.”
So from this spring do you have the idea of increasing economic support for society?
“Absolutely yes.”
What are your thoughts on the team’s current situation?
“We are looking for a turning point, we have a good but still young coach, we have been missing a couple of players so far who we have now signed to keep the team at the level it deserves. The Mannion case was an inevitable transfer, for him it was no longer a question of money but of the desire to play in the Euroleague, competing again at certain levels and we found the best solution for him and for us from an economic point of view. This has allowed us to take players who will now allow us to do better in my opinion, we have strengthened the team, then it is clear that when certain figures who have been leaders are missing, even if for a short period, the other teammates tend to take on more responsibility, as was the case in the victory against Virtus Bologna, and therefore this will also be an important variable for us. The responsibility is now divided among several players because there is no longer just one savior of the country and I believe that this will be a positive situation for the development of the team and not a negative one.”
Have you given a time limit for the investment here in Varese? Would a possible relegation change things?
“Absolutely not. I don’t think and I don’t believe that we will be relegated but if it ever, unfortunately, were to happen, nothing would change in my commitment to Varese. I have decided to embrace this project and the red and white cause which is my cause as first and foremost a huge Varese fan and then as an entrepreneur, I am alongside Scola and Bulgheroni, I support and will strongly support the club to try to bring it back as much as possible as high as possible and always will.”
Will we see you again at the stadium soon?
“Yes, if I can I should already be there for the match against Venezia on Sunday 1st December”.
Do you want to send a message to the Varese fans?
“I am just a small cog in the great machine of Varese Basketball and what I can say to the fans is to stand by the team, support it and have faith. I repeat, I will do everything to support the club and thus contribute to Varese’s return to victory.”
Alessandro Burin
Foto sito Stirling Square Capital Partners
