Last December, at an event celebrating one of the Italian football legends Paolo Rossi hosted under the auspices of the Prime Minister Edi Rama, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Tirana, was announced the opening of a rare exhibition featuring memorabilia, shirts and iconic photographs from the career of the golden Italian footballer Paolo Rossi, who was admired also by the Albanian football lovers in the 70s and the 80s.
This exhibition came into existence for all the football fans and sport lovers at the National History Museum in Tirana, where personal memorabilia of Paolo Rosi, including jerseys he has swapped with the world football legends at that time.
Prime Minister Edi Rama attended the event along with many personalities of the sports world and football in particular, including Arrigo Sacchi, one of the world’s all-time leading football coaches, Paolo Rossi’s spouse Federica Cappelletti, also Honorary President of Paolo Rossi foundation, the Italian Ambassador to Albania Fabrizio Bucci, and the President of the Albanian Football Federation Armando Duka.
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I will speak in Italian for two reasons, primarily to honour Paolo Rossi and, secondly, being in front of a perfectionist like Arrigo Sacchi I can’t afford to trust and let my words in the hands of the interpreter, because “the translators become traitors” and, unfortunately, the person you are talking with, who is not a traitor, is indeed the person who pays for what has not been translated correctly.
I am really happy it is now the moment to open the doors and welcome all of those who wish to embark on this trip back to the past, but still think about the future. We here in Albania have experienced football in a very different way and we have gone through Italy’s triumph in the World Championship in 1982 in a completely different way, because we were tucked away of the rest of the world and we couldn’t travel and watch TV except the TV of the regime’s propaganda, which was back then the only window that opened magically in this world, when “RAI’s dark networks” broadcasted football.
It was for this reason that football saved us and football was the only TV program we were allowed to watch and in this way we had the opportunity to watch RAI, but nothing else and we enjoyed the Italian football and back then Albania was divided between two major fan groups, one supporting Italy and the other supporting Germany. There were also smaller groups of fans who supported other nations and this was the perfect final for, so to say, to feel being part of the football match like being at a virtual stadium, because we knew that in each room, in every house that owned a TV set, were like the stadium steps, where Italy’s and Germany’s fans supported their teams and, for this, football for us was more than just the ball and the match. For us, football was the image of another world; it was the presence of another life, it was the opportunity to see a moving mirror, of a forbidden dream.
Who would have ever imagined that you are here? And I would like to thank you all for that, but as many wrongfully told me that this was my idea, I would say I am not one of those who hold a higher position than others and who steal others’ ideas or who do not react to compliments that are not fair, because it was not my idea. It was the idea of the great maestro here, Arrigo Sacchi that I admire immensely.
Thank you Federica for accepting, just like I accepted the proposal by professor Marco, who did all this, Football Federation President Armand Duka, who promptly understood my request to join this project and, of course, also thanks to President Gravina. I didn’t know that you have visited this place four times without letting me know about it. However, as the professor puts it, you, the football presidents, feel superior and you can’t talk with ordinary mortals, let alone with coaches and prime ministers.
I can say a lot more, but I will stop here and I would like to invite all football admirers to visit this exhibition.
Thank you!
