Davide Ballardini, dominate the storm

At the final whistle of the game against Verona, Palermo’s hard-fought rescue on the last day of the match was worth it even for the introvert Davide Ballardini gives in to his feelings and allows himself to be overwhelmed by the wave of enthusiasm from the 33,000 favorites. A goal reached on May 15, 2016, was achieved at the end of the craziest year of the Zamparini era, when coaches were repeatedly fired and some of them, including Balla, recalled, in a precarious work situation taken to the extreme which you could read about the entire career of the coach from Romagna. Already used to presidents who devour coaches of the caliber of Cellino, Preziosi and therefore Zamparini, Ballardini had never shown callous and unbridled joy in his previous successes with Cagliari and Genoa.

“Some presidents break your brain. Our football is no longer based on competence and separation of roles, but on profit and bargaining. And the task of coaching is diminished. My grandfather thought it wasn’t a job at all. I told him that they paid me and he then said: I understand, you are an artist“.

The RepublicFebruary 1, 2016

On the other hand, the Sicilian capital, together with the island in general, represents for Balla a place of the soul, which is therefore able to release the sentimental side often obscured by these dark lenses, enveloping the figure in an aura of “symptomatic puzzle“, to quote Franco Battiato.