The passing of Carlo Mazzone yesterday brought back to mind one of the most famous episode in the legendary career of the Rome-born coach. There is not a single person south of the Alps who won’t remember this episode, which made it into the collective imagination of Italian football aficionados as “Mazzone’s Run.”
Technically, this was not a fight nor a brawl, only the genuine outburst of a spontaneous man who just couldn’t take it anymore, and let himself go on a wild celebration right in front of opposition supporters. All good and normal (isn’t this one of the biggest pleasures in football, after all?) if it wasn’t for the fact that the man was a football coach.
What made the performance even more remarkable is the fact that it was carried out by somebody who means a great deal to Italian football: Carlo Mazzone, aka Sor Carletto, was a legend in the world of calcio. Mazzone spent a 38-year coaching career, teaching his football verbo on virtually every campo di provincia on the Italian peninsula. He was an old-school coach. Pane al pane e vino al vino, we say in Italy to define somebody who’s straight, direct, and adorably genuine.
Carletto didn’t win any major title, but between 1993 and 1996 he fulfilled his dream of managing his beloved Roma. While doing so, he once noticed a 16 year-old blonde kid from the youth team who had debuted in Serie A a few months earlier. Mazzone made him part of Roma’s roster regularly. The kid’s name was Francesco Totti, and the old coach became a kind of second father to him.
Due to some obscure whim from the gods of football, in the 2001/02 season the Roman coach found himself in charge of Brescia, at a moment in time when their roster featured players like Roberto Baggio and Josep Guardiola. Yes, you read it right. Roberto Baggio AND Josep Guardiola once played together…for Brescia!
On September 20, 2001, the Rondinelle played host to Atalanta at the Mario Rigamonti Stadium. There is a long-lasting feud between the clubs, which come from two neighboring cities in the Lombardy Region – Bergamo and Brescia. Baggio was 34 years old at the time, and nature was inevitably taking a toll on his athleticism and performance. But Il Divin Codino, albeit graying, still had the touch, and in the 24th minute he caught a cross by Fabio Petruzzi to put Mazzone’s side ahead and turn the Rigamonti into a pressure cooker.
But there was still so much more to happen on that crazy September afternoon. Far from being demotivated by Baggio’s feat, the visitors managed to score not once, not twice, but three times before the end of the first half. With a two-goal lead and a strong claim over the hotly-contested derby, Atalanta supporters went into raptures and started targeting coach Mazzone – booing at him and insulting him from the stands.
Now, if there is one thing you must never question of an Italian, it is his Mamma. Thus moms, of all ages and walks of life, inevitably end up becoming the favored target of football fans, when it comes to denigrating their opponents. But this time was different. The Bergamaschi supporters probably didn’t know that Mazzone lost his mother when he was very young. Carletto – an emotional and proud man – couldn’t accept that.
So when Baggio decided to take the match into his hands and scored the second for Brescia, his coach made a sinister promise to the noisy black-and-blue section of the crowd. He viciously looked at them from afar, and warned in his adorable Romanesco slang: “Se famo er terzo, vengo sotto ‘a curva!” (“If we make it three, I’ll come under the stands”), showing the sign of a three with his hand.
Needless to say, Carletto’s prophecy was promptly fulfilled, not least because he had Baggio in his side. With the clock striking minute 92, Il Divin Codino completed his hat-trick by way of a free kick, delivering a lob shot that deceived Atalanta’s defense and mockingly bounced into their goal.
What happened after that is easy to imagine. Assistant coach Leonardo Menichini and press officer Edoardo Piovani tried to hold him back, but Mazzone was stronger and he ran towards the stands like nobody could stop him. He halted in front of a fence separating the pitch from the bleachers, vomiting his rage upon the Bergamaschi. Thank God there was a fence preventing him from going further.
He must have told his rival supporters the worst things. He must have offended the collective memory of their dead relatives, just like they had done with him. But for one moment on that afternoon, everybody felt close to that 60 year-old man running like a kid to confront an army of football thugs and defend his family’s honor alone.
Talking to the press after the game, the coach took full responsibility for his outburst. But also joked about the whole thing, explaining that he had an evil twin who sometimes took control of him.
We wish it was true. Today’s fake football world could surely use two Carlo Mazzones.
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