In the memory of Árpád Weisz

Yesterday’s Internazionale-Bologna game in San Siro was dedicated to Árpád Weisz, a Hungarian-Jewish football player and manager who died during the Second World War in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Weisz born in Hungary, where he started his career and he even played seven times in my country’s national team. Later, he went to Italy where he became the manager of the above mentioned contesting teams which achieved extraordinary results under his command. Even though in Italy he considered to be one of the greatest figures of calcio (in fact, he is still the youngest trainer who won the Scudetto), in Hungary hardly anyone has heard about him.

Why was it important to dedicate the game to him?

First of all, the international remembrance day of Holocaust is approaching, but it’s not all about it. The municipalities of Milan and Bologna wanted to raise people’s awareness to every kind of intolerance and hatred could it be on a racial, religious or other basis. We don’t have to go far in order to experience these malicious phenomena: a few weeks ago, Kevin-Prince Boateng, AC Milan’s German-Ghanian player was racially abused by a group of supporters during a friendly game against Pro Patria. That day was a milestone in the history of the Italian football. Boateng had heard enough so he decided to leave the pitch and few minutes later the whole team followed him.

Thanks to Michele we had the chance to watch the Inter-Bologna game from the very best sector of the famous San Siro. Two years ago I went to watch an Inter-Bayern match in the Champions League and now I feel that I am getting use to the view of Meazza’s enormous mass of concrete blocks. We can say that the weather wasn’t on our side and it was “only” an Italian Cup game with reserves playing both sides. Not surprisingly, the huge stadium was not packed with people. Despite these circumstances we saw a great game. When you sit in front of the television you do not expect many goals when two Italian teams are playing, however this time we saw five goals with a final result of 3-2, Ranocchia heading the last one in the last minute of extra time. It was really nice to take a closer look at iconic players like Javier Zanetti, Antonio Cassano, Esteban Cambiasso or Alessandro Diamanti.

During the match we even got a free Italian lesson of various “bad words”. Hungarians tend to be proud if it comes to the diversity of obscene expressions. I had the feeling that the Italians do it better. We even see Massimo Moratti in the VIP sector, unfortunately he didn’t even salute us....

Can’t wait to see the next game!