‘New Football Museum’ opens with a star-studded evening. Gravina: “Proud to be part of it”

A new entrance and courtyard; a new football pitch at the entrance where visitors can play live, challenging friends and fellow guests, trying to emulate the great champions whose jerseys are displayed inside the museum. This is the ‘New Football Museum,’ renovated and inaugurated in an evening full of smiles and praise for its elegant yet dynamic design, which highlights history while keeping in mind that fun remains at the heart of the game.

“I’m proud to be part of this event,” emphasised FIGC President Gabriele Gravina as he took the microphone in the new courtyard of the Football Museum, his smile reflecting not mere courtesy but the warmth of a long-awaited evening. “Our football museum,” Gravina continued, “is a physical space, renovated and enhanced, carried forward with great enthusiasm; but it is also a place that holds a rich material and immaterial heritage, where every object forms a puzzle that represents not only the identity of our football, but of our country as a whole. Memory is not nostalgia, it is responsibility. And we must live up to that responsibility.”

The “host” of the evening was the President of the Museo del Calcio Foundation, Matteo Marani, who introduced the guests in a star-studded lineup filled with World Cup champions and some of the highest figures in Italian football. Among those present were head coaches Rino Gattuso and Andrea Soncin, the Italian team delegation head Gianluigi Buffon, national team captain Gianluigi Donnarumma, the presidents of Lega B, AIA, and Serie A Women Paolo Bedin, Antonio Zappi, and Federica Cappelletti, CAN head Gianluca Rocchi, and Florence’s City Councilor for Sport, Youth Policies, and Popular Traditions, Letizia Perini.

“We are happy and excited,” Marani said, introducing the various speeches, “to showcase this long project, and from everyone’s expressions, you can see that they are all positively impressed by the museum’s new look. It’s a wonderful project, and I thank President Gravina and the Federation for their constant support.”

“I really wanted to be here tonight, and this museum is truly moving, bringing back so many childhood memories. And besides,” added head coach Gattuso with a smile to Marani, “I still need to give you my boots from 2006…”

“Having a section of the museum dedicated to women’s football,” commented women’s national team coach Andrea Soncin, “is a sign of what is really happening in the sport. We hope to bring you not only great emotions, but also a trophy.”