Berlusconi has been building this legend of immortality for years – he has already escaped dozens of court cases, survived hundreds of scandals – led by the “bunga-bunga” sex scandal, he was not even overwhelmed by sentences for tax fraud. He promised the people that he would rebuild Italy as he rebuilt Milan, and they have elected him prime minister three times. He always came back to the top. He also returns to big football, although when he said goodbye five years ago by selling Milan, no one expected him anymore.
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He bought the bankrupt Monza in September 2018, when she was in the third league. From the new season he will be with her in Serie A. He watched the play-off game against Pisa from the VIP stand in the company of his old friend Adriano Galliani and the young fiancée – 32-year-old Marta Fascina. He missed two goals from his rivals, but when his team scored in extra time, he jumped up from the seat. He celebrated a torn 4: 3 (6: 4 on aggregate) victory in the arms of Galliani. And then he declared that the promotion was just the beginning, because he wanted the Italian championship and Champions League. “I’ve been used to it since Milan,” he said.
Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani are back on track. Together they are 162 years old, but they pull the strings with the verve of teenagers
Monza was close to bankruptcy, with a ruined stadium, and Berlusconi was bored at his residence in Arcore, a small Lombard town just three kilometers away. One year after sale Milan for 740 million euros, he began to miss the smell of mowed grass in the training center, emotions during matches, visits to the locker room, while the dirty jokes of some soccer players he amused, he was embarrassed by others, but everyone laughed. And the excitement that accompanied him every time he started a new project completely from scratch.
That’s when he called Adriano Galliani, his friend and right hand man in all his football adventures, with the vision of taking over a small club that was founded in 1912 and has never had a taste for Serie A. There was no other club in Italy that existed for so long and never played for top league. Nobody knew this club better than Galliani, who comes from Monza and made his first football steps there. “ It’s a romantic story, ” Berlusconi was said to have said, and in September 2018 he laid down three million to save the club from bankruptcy. “It will be romantic” – he ordered to write in the club corridor.
And there’s something romantic and nostalgic about Berlusconi and Galliani clutching each other’s arm again, as in 1986 when Silvio took over Milan and placed Adriano on the manager’s stool. In this arrangement, they spent three wonderful decades on San Siro and won 29 trophies. Now, again, combining Galliani’s nose with Berlusconi’s thick wallet was going to be a success that Monza fans had not even dreamed of. For promotion to A league they gave themselves three years. They overpaid it a little – a year, unluckily dropping out last summer in the play-offs. In Italy, they laugh at them for being like old rockers who are 162 together, but still pluck the strings with the verve of teenagers. They pumped over EUR 70 million into the club, the most in the history of the lower leagues. Most for footballers, but they also renovated the training grounds and the 10,000-strong stadium, which, according to the joke of the fans themselves, was filled only twice – during Michael Jackson concerts. – When we got here, we saw disastrous conditions. The stadium was falling apart and it was impossible to play on it, the training center was in just as bad shape. We rebuilt it, we put lighting – said Galliani.
The players were not supposed to have tattoos or earrings. But then Boateng and Balotelli came, and that was the rules
Berlusconi wanted to carry out a romantic revolution in Monza, although he himself is associated with everything that is unromantic. He said that his players will be required to dress perfectly, take care of their image and behavior. He didn’t want to see soccer players with torn pants, body tattoos, piercings, or a beard. Shaved and well-groomed, they were supposed to address judges and rivals in a gentlemanly manner, and give their autographs legible, not daubs. Berlusconi also said that young Italian players will always have priority in the team. But over the years of ruling the club and the state, he made himself known as a populist who would promise everything to win the sympathy of the crowd. For Berlusconi, rules are important, but not as important as Results. So, after his promotion to Serie B, he brought a duo of scandalists with tattoos, fancy hairstyles and a long list of sins to the club. Kevin Prince Boateng i Mario Balotelli they were supposed to help the club reach the highest level in no time league. Berlusconi turned a blind eye to the fact that having even one of them risked blowing up any locker room.
He and Galliani were learning Serie B themselves back then. At first they thought that the old method of bringing in famous players would make them successful. “In Serie B, you don’t need stars but persistence,” said Galliani after losing last year’s play-offs. He quickly learned his conclusions: Boateng and Balotelli left after a year and the team was taken over by Giovanni Stroppa, a former Milan player who, as a coach, brought Crotone to Serie A. Now – with Monza – he won a second promotion in his career.
Berlusconi is about to reach for his wallet again and will strengthen the team solidly before playing in the elite, as Milan once brought in Roberto Donadoni, Daniele Massaro and Dario Bonetti. And he won’t be looking at the players’ looks or their manners. He will be looking at the result. To show up against Inter. After all, he was promoted by a bearded man Christian Gytkjaer, former forward of Lech Poznań. With this extra-time goal, Berlusconi was able to draw further plans: “Being in Serie A, we have to aim for the Scudetto and then for a Champions League win.” I’m used to always winning. Monza’s promotion and Milan championship are results that delight my heart, ‘he said, and the next day all Italian newspapers cited him, sports newspapers gave him back covers, and Italians began to wonder if he would try to use sports success for political ends again. Because it’s not about romanticism here.
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