It’s not just a coincidence. In three of the last four championships, between Serie C and B, Bari has been one of Catanzaro’s biggest rivals. He frustrated their objectives as in the 2022 promotion clash at the “Ceravolo” (1-2 for the guests), or measured the degree of maturation with the 2-2 at the “San Nicola” a year ago, the first match after the coat 5-0 against Parma. It tested their ambitions, as happened last February with the 2-0 victory in Calabria which relaunched the Giallorossi to the top of the table.
Tomorrow the people of Puglia will be the thermometer of a delicate moment for the umpteenth timewith the Eagles forced to leave behind the doubts and problems of the first eight matchdays. It will be a very important clash for both, because the hosts are also competing a lot: they are relaunching themselves, a misstep would hold them back, certifying the overtaking of Iemmello and his teammates.
It would be very tasty stuff, thinking back to the most recent precedents. Bari were not only rivals on the pitch. The strategies of the two companies have often crossed paths and they have stepped on each other’s toes more than once. Some of the many exes of this challenge are proof of this.
Playmaker Maita, for example, was sold to Catanzaro when he was captain during the winter transfer window of 2020 (Vivarini was on the Bari bench, speaking of exes). Or in the case of the new red and white sporting director Magalini, who moved to that side of the fence at the end of last season, not without (many) controversies considering how the agreement to remain in the yellow and red, with president Noto, was reached months ago and was only filed. Trusting his word is another thing, perhaps he wouldn’t have taken it back without the inclusion of Luigi De Laurentiis’ club. Alongside Magalini, who has nevertheless worked very well here, there is Valerio Di Cesare, someone who has just started as a manager after finishing a long career as a defender: Catanzaro was among his initial stops, twenty years ago.
The winger Oliveri is now also an opponent, but the return of the current Giallorossi sporting director Ciro Polito certainly has more weight and expectations in those parts, who in Bari experienced two triumphal seasons with a promotion to Serie B and the Serie A faded to last minute of the playoffs. Polito made great moves in Puglia (the striker Cheddira, the goalkeeper Caprile), but he reset everything (in the eyes of the fans) for the terrible past year, saved only in the playout. Compared to Magalini, Polito is younger, interventionist (in the locker room) and volcanicno less prepared on the technical front. He is the one who brought Koutsoupias to the Eagles, paid a penny at Benevento after he was exploding at the “San Nicola”, on loan, until he broke a ligament. Petriccione and D’Alessandro also have a history in Bari.
In short, many people have a few pages in their scrapbook, yellow-red or red-white, to bring to mind. Catanzaro, probably without Pittarello, at least from the beginning, is interested above all in one thing: starting again. All the better if doing so would mean tripping up your rivals.
