The journalist Claudio Minolitiformer deputy director of Tg4 and editor-in-chief of Tgcom, has returned to his hometown Messina (at the Bonanzinga bookshop) to present the book “Puskas, the champion of two worlds”dedicated to the Hungarian talent, extraordinary on the pitch and with a thrilling story off it: between war, exile and refuge in Liguria. “We are talking about one of the greatest champions in the history of football. A champion protagonist of two legendary teams, such as the great Hungary and Real Madrid, and we are also talking about a champion and a man who also had a difficult life, due to the disqualification for having remained passive in his homeland after the invasion of the Soviet tanks in Budapest. What I tried to do was the story of these two years in which Puskás literally could not play, because he was under disqualification were difficult years, complicated. Complicated in the true sense of the term. Years which he lived, moreover, largely in Italy: between Bordighera, where he lived for a long time, in Milan and also in Signa, where he played an incredible friendly match for a player who , at that time, was certainly the best player in the world”.
A story, that of the unforgettable ace, which intertwines sport, politics and history: “Puskás was considered by Hungary, in the period following his exile and until he returned home, but we are already talking about the 90s after the fall of the wall, in any case in the years following his escape from Hungary, not only a traitor but also a deserter in all respects because Puskás, who played for the Honved of Budapest, the emanation team of the Hungarian army and had the rank of colonel, for years, had the fear that could literally be arrested”. An episode that explains this dynamic well: “In a semi-final of the Champions Cup that Real Madrid played near East Germany, he didn’t play that match, citing an injury that in reality wasn’t there, because he was afraid of being kidnapped and arrested by the officers”.
Minoliti indicates Puskas as an example to reinforce the social value of football, a sport that has made of symbols and emotions, as well as plays, victories, defeats and trophies: “I, who was born in Messina but, for professional reasons, have no longer lived here for fifty-five years, know perfectly well what Il Celeste means for Messina. Il Celeste is part of the culture, not just football, of the city and they are those symbolic places, as there are symbolic champions, as Totò Schillaci was and is, who recently passed away. Football is not just 22 people in shorts running in a green rectangle. Football is beyond other things, it has an impact on society, it has a value that is not just sporting”.