20 years without Giacinto Facchetti

20 years. 20 years since the sky suddenly turned upside down, as Susanna Wermelinger wrote on this website while searching for words that could never truly be found to say a final goodbye to Giacinto Facchetti. 20 years since a Summer so strange and bittersweet that it remains etched in the memory of all of us Inter fans, through events on and off the pitch, culminating in the greatest pain of all on 4 September 2006.

It all began, so to speak, on 11 May that year. Giacinto Facchetti was Inter president, and Roberto Mancini’s side had lifted the Coppa Italia at San Siro after beating Roma 3-1. Cambiasso, Martins and Cruz were on the scoresheet, Zanetti lifted the trophy, and the league season was drawing to a close amid the turmoil of the ongoing investigations. As it turns out, that night at San Siro would be Giacinto Facchetti’s final match at the stadium. No one could have known.

A knee check-up, intended to allow him to keep playing tennis and continue his matches with Aristide Guarneri, marked the beginning of his illness.

It was, as mentioned, a summer like no other. Italy had won the World Cup, and Giacinto tried to summon the strength to fly to Berlin for the final, but was unable to make the trip. On 26 July, while Inter were in Bolzano for a friendly against Monaco, the news arrived: the Nerazzurri were Italian champions following a decision from the FIGC. Giacinto Facchetti responded in his usual clear, straightforward manner: “This is the Scudetto of fairness and respect for the rules; a title won by a team that showed strength, quality and spirit. It is a Scudetto that comes at a time when Italian football has decided to place ethics at the heart of everything. And for that reason, it is a Scudetto with a double significance.”

A few weeks earlier, in the final interview he gave, he had spoken about time: “As with everything in my life, time will tell. It will reveal who behaved improperly, including those who may not have been found out. I always say that time is a great truth-teller, and sooner or later something will come to light.” A prophecy.

There was still time for one more trophy. On 26 August 2006, on a warm summer night, Inter had won the Supercoppa Italiana after coming from behind to beat Roma 4-3 in a remarkable game, sealed by Luis Figo’s free-kick. Mancini dedicated the victory to “President Facchetti, who was unable to come to the stadium”. The trophy was lifted at San Siro and, the following day, travelled with Marco Materazzi as the defender visited Giacinto Facchetti in hospital. A moment to share in a great joy, an affectionate gesture and, in effect, a farewell. Despite his suffering, Giacinto also made himself available for another initiative linked to the Golden Foot, the award for football legends established in Monte Carlo. He got out of bed to have a cast made of the foot with which he wrote unforgettable pages of football history.

Time was beginning to run out. Just a few days later, on 4 September 2006, Giacinto left us forever, turning the sky upside down and filling the Nerazzurri world, and far beyond it, with pain and sadness. “A broken heart. It shattered on a day that was just like so many others. No signs, no warnings, with the sky still where it had always been.

Then, suddenly, it turned upside down.”

He was 64. Still tall and strong, and always true to the motto he had adopted as a young man: “You cannot be good by halves.” The reactions from across the sporting world, far beyond the Nerazzurri family, showed the true measure of the man as well as the great champion he was. One only needed to flick through the international press to understand his stature. “How can we forget?” wrote L’Équipe. El País ran the headline: “The legend of the masked striker”. The International Herald Tribune wrote: “Italy loses a leader”. In Paris, before France vs. Italy (the first meeting since the World Cup final) an emotional minute’s silence was observed.

Dedications, tributes and homages. The line of people outside the gates of Villa Giovanna, young and old, Inter shirts and faces still in disbelief. The funeral at Sant’Ambrogio was a moment of unity and deep emotion, with a crowd that sent shivers down the spine. More than ten thousand people. Gianfelice, Giacinto’s son, remembered him with a passage from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451:

“Everyone must leave something behind when they die,” my grandfather used to say. “A child, or a book, or a painting, or a house, or a wall built with one’s own hands, or a pair of shoes stuck in the ground. Or a garden planted with love. In short, something your hand has touched, something you’ve brought into being, so that your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’ll be there.”

Giacinto had left behind so much, an extraordinary legacy. On and off the pitch, both professionally and personally. Chants and banners, just like at the stadium: “YESTERDAY A FLAG, TODAY A STAR”. “FAREWELL GIACINTO. A GREAT AND HONEST PRESIDENT”. “THANK YOU FACCHETTI FOR HONOURING INTER AND US ALL”.

Everyone was there: friends and former team-mates, leading figures from the world of sport, old rivals, the team, the fans, ordinary people, Inter supporters and others. “An example, a gentleman in every sense of the word.” Newspaper articles, memories from friends, from don Mazzi to Jannacci. Each with a story, a memory of what Giacinto had left behind.

The Primavera championship and the Interello training centre are both named after him: places where football is meant to flourish, built on the values he stood for throughout his life.

A few days later, Esteban Cambiasso scored twice in Inter’s 3-2 win in Florence. He dedicated both goals to Facchetti, raising his hands to the sky, his emotion hidden in the embrace of his team-mates. It is a bond that the midfielder will always carry with him, in more ways than one. The season that began with Facchetti’s passing ended with an extraordinary Scudetto, secured in Siena and celebrated by the Argentine midfielder wearing the number 3 shirt, which he had asked the family’s permission to wear as a special tribute. He did the same in 2010, returning from Madrid with the Champions League in his hands.

“History was already His. Now he sits on the throne of Eternity.” There could have been no better way to pass Facchetti’s legacy on to us all. 20 years may have passed, but he will live on forever.