Statuto Football Club against Materazi Future Club. A match to compare two different ways of bringing football into music. On the one hand Oskar Giammarinaro, who founded the historic Turin mod band 41 years ago. On the other Riccardo Montanari, Edoardo Piron and Marco Manini, in their early thirties with their football stories in an electronic key. To meet in this friendly match that promises entertainment, played on the neutral pitch of the pages of Rolling Stone, they are also two different generations of musicians. The referee is Mr. Zoja from Milan, certainly not sold, perhaps cuckolded, who knows.
No coin for the kick-off which was given to Oskar, by far the player with the most appearances of all those on the pitch. The Statutos play in the granata shirt, a tribute to Torino of which the singer has always been a fan. It is he who, during this first phase of studying the opponent, explains the meaning of Football Club Statutethe album they are recording and the tour they will be busy with this spring-summer.
«It is above all a celebration of football that we have always experienced with greater passion, and with the dedication that we lack today. Football on a human scale, that of Sunday afternoon, not a slave to pay TV, without sponsors on the shirts and with numbers from 1 to 11. Romantic football, in short. There will be the theme songs of the most famous sports programs, All the football minute by minute, 90th minute, Dribbling, Sprint Sundaywhich was Stadium by Oscar Prudente, and an old theme song from Sports Sunday: Dribbling by Piero Umiliani. They are all songs immediately recognizable by those who were passionate about football in those years. Alongside these acronyms we have recorded and will play live football songs such as The football draft of the class of '68 by Francesco De Gregori, A life as a midfielder of Ligabue, The ball game by Rita Pavone and An Italian summer by Gianna Nannini and Edoardo Bennato, the anthem of Italia '90″.
Despite the classy play of Oskar and his team, the Materazi Future Club held up well in defense and won the ball back, having their say on the football played by their opponent. Thanks to a special exemption from the federation, the three play with different shirts. Marco wears the red and black one of his Milan, Edoardo the yellow and red one of Roma, the team of his heart despite a life spent in Milan, and Riccardo the one of Italian champions Inter. «I remember 90th minute», says Marco, «I was a child but I am well aware of that Sunday moment when I was on the sofa with my dad watching the highlights, as they say today. The theme song of 90° it's legendary, beautiful, musically speaking, it needs to be revived.”
Edoardo, on the other hand, starts quickly on the flank and becomes dangerous by underlining affinities and divergences between the music of Materazi and that celebrated by Statuto: «Many situations, I think of a piece like that of De Gregori, are distant from us who deal with football from the midfield from the 2000s onwards. There's a gap of a few years, but we grew up catching up on certain things via YouTube. They are different worlds. We experienced the last vestige of a football world in which there was still a percentage of errors. Now everything is right.”
What is the football song that Materazi Future Club likes and that is part of their world? «Little ultras story by Offlaga Disco Pax», they reply. «It is not a historical football song but it is more in line with what we do, also because Max Collini was a great source of inspiration, as well as one of our collaborators». Already present on the debut album Owner trainingthe founder of Offlaga Disco Pax also makes his voice heard in Punkinari, the trio's new EP, where it tells the story of Igor Simutenkov, a meteor of Reggiana in the mid-90s. «The theme of the bench arose a bit during last year's tour. We toured Italy a lot, also visiting the provinces a lot, where there are no big teams to support, but there are characters who, starting from there, perhaps arrived in Serie A, but on the bench. The imagery of the bench player certainly belongs more to our project than the stories of the great bombers. Having so much potential but then being on the bench is a story in which we recognize ourselves a little.”
Their EP tells, among others, the story of Christian Riganò. Bricklayer, footballer, coach and then bricklayer again. «He is one of the provincial heroes we like to talk about. This romantic football that has almost disappeared in Serie A is still there in Serie B. We would like to do something in the future, perhaps an EP on the strikers of the cadet series. When we go around they bring us local bomber t-shirts. There is nothing to win there, but a truer and more participatory spirit.”
And by appealing to the bench, from which the goals often come, Materazi Future Club took the lead. Football Club Statute-Materazi Future Club 0-1.
Materazi Future Club. Photo: Davide Dimitri/Slum Lab
The Statutos put the ball in the center and make themselves heard with Oskar who talks about the champions who made him dream the most. «In the football I experienced as a child I was spoiled for choice. Being from Toro there is a certain partisanship in my choices, therefore Pulici above all, but also Ferrini, Sandro Mazzola, Gianni Rivera, Gigi Riva, champions with a charisma and credibility even off the pitch that is difficult to find today. Flagship champions as there were even later, like Totti, who arrived much later but who still interpreted a reference for a city, for a people”.
«The feeling is that we adapt to today's world, it is increasingly difficult to stay in a certain team when the proposals come from clubs with great economic means such as Real and City», reason the Materazi Future Club. «Now the earnings are very higher, but when they were lower the player cared more about showing his belonging. When a player goes to Arabia they say: but when faced with that offer, how can you say no? Ok, but how much more money did he need? What does having a few more million change in his life when he already has a lot? It would be better to build yourself a structure as a person. But now there are different values. It's something that can also be seen in the music of featuring artists: even in modern music belonging is no longer so important. There are musicians ready to change everything to make more numbers, more plays, even when what they do to get these plays doesn't belong to them. We believe that people recognize the density of coherence, which however no longer pays off, it is no longer a recognized value.”
Thanks to their play, the Materazi Future Club free themselves from the Statutos' forcing, but it is still Oskar who wins the ball back by telling how he lives his passion at the Grande Torino stadium, where every Sunday he displays the banner of the Mods of Piazza Statuto. «When I can I always go to the stadium. I no longer go to the Maratona corner, I go to the Primavera corner because, when there was the problem of getting a fan card, all the groups of ultras who, like me, refused to do so went to the other corner. The risk was not being able to buy a ticket when there were important matches, as well as not having our permanent place for the banner. Once this absurd problem of the fan card was over, we continued to stay there. I'm part of an organized group, but I'm also 60 years old, so I'm definitely not going to do certain things anymore. We must try not to be ridiculous, and this is not my moment, but I express my maximum support to all the young boys who have to face very strong repression in order to organize themselves and follow their team away. Being ultras today is much more difficult than it was for us.”
Oskar's passion allows Statuto to score the equalizer right at the end of the first half. Statute Football Club-Materazi Future Club 1-1.
And do the Materazis go to the stadium? They tell it as they put the ball back in the center for the start of the second half. The only one is Marco, who grew up near San Siro. «But I have never been part of an organized group. Certain dynamics of the curves bother me, I don't feel very similar: they sing out of time, the metrics are wrong and my brain is spinning.” But that's not all. «Inter's curve ended up in Kanye West's album! I don't like the political alignment of Milan, some of its members are also linked to Salvini. If you don't frequent the curves, what you get from being outside is the slightly more fascist-like fringe, the one that makes itself felt a little more, more racist. I would have liked to experience the curves of the 70s, it was a different world. However, I like going to the stadium because in the corner there are kids, migrants, families with children, 60-70 year olds. I really like the sociological aspect of the curve. Going to the stadium, singing all together, is something that has replaced religion, which has disappeared.” When Edoardo goes to Rome he tries to go to see the matches but, he says, he has a slightly more bourgeois approach and goes to the stadium alone, while Riccardo, “who grew up with the image of the scooter thrown off the curve”, is the one who follows football at the stadium less.
At the stadium, everyone has their favorite song. «In the Curva del Toro, at the time of the Marathon, we were passionate about 70s funk-disco music, which also revealed the age of those who created the choirs. One of the main creators was Joe, one of the founders of the ultras, who unfortunately has no longer been with us for some years. He invented a crazy choir in 2005. We had failed and we were not allowed to register for Serie A. The following year there would be the Olympics in Turin and to contest our failure to register for the championship we sang to the music of Portobello: “I would like to boycott / Turin 2006. Without the Bull in Serie A / the city burns / lallallallallallallaaa”. I don't know how he came up with it.”
Surely with this stroke of genius Oskar gives his team the advantage. Football Club Statute-Materazi Future Club 2-1.
Statute. Photo: Andrea Gallins
Down by a goal, the Materazi Future Club throw themselves in search of an equalizer by telling the stadium songs that have remained in their hearts. Marco hasn't forgotten the very classic “Ohi ohi ohi / ohihohiohoiuoi / Pippo Inzaghi scores for us” to the music of Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley, but the best memory is that of Edoardo, who went to the Olimpico for the first time with his dad on the evening of the famous Roma-Juve 4-0, that of the 4th and home mimed by Totti. «The chorus on the aria of Let's start again by Adriano Pappalardo for me it is always linked to Roma-Juve that evening. In Rome there is more musicality and the choir goes like this: “I who carry in my heart / only love / for those two colors / between joys and sorrows / win or lose / Lazio is shit / that's why we sing come on Rome we love you / let's start again!”.
And with this choir and the memories it brings with it, the Materazi Future Club scored the equalizer. Football Club Statute-Materazi Future Club 2-2.
The referee's final whistle sends everyone into the shower, but not before a hug exchanged in the name of their common passion for football, and obviously for music. Score us a goala song by Statuto dedicated to Paolo Pulici, is the theme song of Here I study at you stagea historic football broadcast on private Lombardy TV channels on which thousands of fans have trained, including Marco from the Materazi Future Club. «You know Oskar», he says returning to the changing rooms, «your song is the one I have listened to the most in my life together with the acronym of Dragon Ball».
