Sports clashes in Brescia: Basketball and Water Polo shine, Football in crisis

Just eight kilometers separate the PalaLeonessa from the Rigamonti. But today they seem like an ocean. On one side the energy of the Brescia basketball, who this evening plays Game 2 of the championship final against Virtus Bologna. On the other hand the silence and the shame of the Brescia Soccer, relegated to Serie C by default. Further north is the pride ofAN Brescia Water Polo, who lost the tricolor final with Recco only in the tie-break, with their heads held high. Sport in Brescia is thus experiencing a burning, almost paradoxical contrast. Two disciplines fighting for the title, another that risks disappearing. But it is not just a question of results: it is also a question of men. Andrea Malchiodi, president of AN Brescia, has silently built a top reality, bringing the 2021 championship to the city, two Champions League semi-finals lost only at the last shot and the respect of the entire movement. Mauro Ferrari, head of Germani Basket, is the silent but determined engine of the ride that has already yielded an Italian Cup in 2023 and now dreams of the tricolor. Coach Peppe Poeta also confirmed this, who in recent days said in these columns: "There is too little talk about him. He is the true architect of this fairy tale because he makes himself heard, he pampers us, he is brave, he believes in his choices and carries them forward". On the other hand, in football, he remains Massimo cellino. A man alone in command, but never truly welcomed by the city. "I was never happy with his arrival," says Dario Leo, a long-time season ticket holder and fan, who, alongside the Rondinelle, went from being a ball boy in the late '70s to a supporter in the stands for the last ten years. "The stadium was full even when we were at risk of relegating to Serie C2," he recalls. "Brescia was a youth sector, work, growth. Cellino was already unpopular in England: why did the club end up in his hands and not in the hands of local entrepreneurs?" Harsh words, but shared. "In Brescia there are excellences of every kind, it is a rich province with very high peaks, and yet even on the part of politicians there has always been a certain disinterest in sport. Now we need to start from the bottom, work with smaller clubs, involve the province." The comparison between the three owners is inevitable. If Malchiodi and Ferrari built on the foundations of merit, Cellino has used up credit and trust. And today the city is paying. While basketball dreams with Della Valle, Bilan and their teammates, and water polo has reached the end with youth products such as Tommaso Baggi Necchi and Tommaso Gianazza (both in the Settebello), football clings to hope. Perhaps in the figure of Joseph Pasini, president of Feralpisalò and industrialist with a turnover of 1,7 billion, who could ferry a new company to Brescia. Perhaps in the signals of politics, which has opened an anti-crisis table with the mayor, Laura Castelletti, also because in the middle there is a stadium that risks representing a prohibitive burden for the state coffers. Today, however, the difference remains clear. On the one hand, sport unites and raises the name of the city. On the other, management divides and burns a century-old history. "We don't need proclamations and top scorers for promotions, but work in the territory. May this fall be an opportunity", concludes Leo. In Brescia, the future also passes through here: understanding that sport, if guided with passion and vision, is not just spending. It is investment.