Happy birthday Carletto!
June 10, 1959, Reggiolo
Carlo Ancelotti is born
In the words of football journalist Giorgio Tosatti, Carlo Ancelotti – born June 10, 1959 in Reggiolo – was “the last soccer player in Italy who truly came from peasant stock”. The ability to endure whatever was thrown at this wonderful and irreplaceable athlete, alongside his unlimited appetite to accept both the good and the bad of the sport with irony and strength of spirit, did indeed come straight from Carletto’s peasant roots.
It has been said that before Nils Liedholm approved Ancelotti’s transfer from Parma, he not only wanted to watch him on the field but also to observe him from up close in the quiet of his home in Reggiolo at Christmas. Ancelotti was, and remains, a force of nature because just like the wind, the rain and the sun, he may disappear for a while, but he’ll always come back to bring his strength to bear.
His bond with Rome and the Romans has always been fantastic. Though intimidated by the roar of the huge metropolis on his first ever encounter with the capital, Ancelotti quickly become curious to escape the Trigoria retreat (together with Paolo Giovannelli and Paolo Alberto Faccini, he was one of the first to live in the lodgings at the Centro Sportivo Fulvio Bernardini in Trigoria). He’d go to meet the people and experience the city in both its most iconic settings and those we tend to ignore.
An inductee into the AS Roma Hall of Fame in 2014, Ancelotti won over the people of Rome because of the way he carried himself on and off the field. Do you remember his goal against Ascoli Picchio in 1983? A cross from Agostino Di Bartolomei, cleared by Francesco Scorsa before being knocked down by Claudio Valigi to Ancelotti, who took it on his right before rifling it into the top corner from the edge of the area.
There was also the side of Ancelotti away from the game, like when he ended an interview with Osvaldo Amorisino in February 1984 by saying: “The guys in Curva Sud are Roma’s 12th man. Please write that. I love them too and I want them to know it.”
Happy birthday Carletto.
Massimo Izzi
Born on this day (statistics refer to all competitions)
Carlo Ancelotti, June 10, 1959 in Reggiolo – Central midfielder, 227 appearances, 17 goals
Vasilis Torosidis, June 10, 1985 in Xanthi, Greece – Defender, 63 appearances, 6 goals
Marco Andreolli, June 10, 1986 in Ponte dell’Olio – Defender, 15 appearances, 1 goal
