Beccalossi death, Inter’s grief in a touching letter

In a touching letter published on the Nerazzurri club’s official website, Inter remembered Evaristo Beccalossi, who died at the age of 69. The unforgettable midfielder, flag-bearer of the Biscione, passed away in the night between Tuesday and Friday: with the meneghino club he won a championship and two Italian Cups.

“FC Internazionale Milano and the whole Inter world join the condolences for the passing of Evaristo Beccalossi and, in remembering him, embrace his family members. It seems impossible to us. In the folds of memories and in everyday life, Evaristo was always one of us. Ineffable, like his dribbles, unique, like his way of handling the ball.”

“Talent cannot be learned. It is a gift, at best you raise it, with the stubbornness of someone who is right-footed and from childhood trains his left in the garage at home until he becomes left-handed, ambidextrous, practically omnipotent with both feet. Evaristo Beccalossi’s was limpid, dazzling, in contrast to a continuity of performance that sometimes failed over the course of matches but which, always, was forgiven him, by teammates and fans alike.”

“Fantasista: precisely, Beccalossi. Gianni Brera had dubbed him ‘Driblossi’. The art of dribbling, of leaping over opponents: brazen daring, almost always successful, with lightness. The beauty of soccer, the most romantic way to make fans fall in love. With curls that dangled over his shoulders, with his unmistakable cadence in the middle of the field, he gave caresses to the ball. No one, better than Peppino Prisco, captured Evaristo’s iconicity: “He didn’t play with the ball, it was the ball that played with him. He didn’t kick it, he caressed it, filling it with cuddles.”

“Evaristo’s cuddles were many, on and off the field, in the years in nerazzurro – from 1978 to 1984 – and then after, in life as a former footballer, always alongside Inter, always inside soccer, among the Federation, boys to inspire and grow. As a fantasist there too.
Right footed, left footed, goal scoring and game vision. Oriali, Marini, Baresi ran, Beccalossi invented. And he scored, provided assists, painted trajectories. Sometimes intermittently, sometimes dazzlingly. With the candor and naturalness that always distinguished him, he candidly admitted, without fear of being judged, because that was also his forte: “When I arrived at the San Siro, my teammates did not know whether they would play in 10 or 12: it depended only on me.”

The number 10 on his shoulders: he arrived at Inter from Brescia, his hometown team, in 1978 and found himself catapulted inside a Meazza that immediately welcomed him by peeling his hands. Moreover, the recommendation to Sandro Mazzola-his predecessor with the 10 and at the time a Nerazzurri manager-came after a game in which he dribbled five players before failing to score in front of the goalkeeper. The manifesto of his immense skill and also of his volubility, so peculiar and at the same time magnetic.”

“”With Beccalossi and Pasinato we will win the championship. Many of us were not yet born, in that 1980, but that chorus accompanied Bersellini’s Inter towards the 12th Scudetto. With Bordon, Baresi, Altobelli, Caso, Bini, Marini, Oriali, Canuti, Pasinato, Muraro, Mozzini, Pancheri, Ambu, Cipollini, Occhipinti and, of course, Evaristo Beccalossi, the 10 of that team. Seven goals, two in the derby of October 8, 1979. A right-footed volley of unmatched lightness, on a field with no grass, only mud. And another goal to close out a Nerazzurri-only stracittadina.”

“More than goals, 37 in 215 appearances, more than titles – a Scudetto and a Coppa Italia – Beccalossi was always the man of dreams: the one who could give you magic, at any moment, and patience if it didn’t come, you had him on the field and that was all you needed, to know that you could witness, sooner or later, a dribble, an unthinkable trajectory. And patience, if on a cup night, there came two mistakes from the penalty spot in the space of five minutes.”

“Once again, genius again, though without merit, turned this crooked evening into something artistic: the monologue brought to the theater by actor Paolo Rossi. “The most beautiful thing in my opinion was that the Inter people identified with us. I left a good memory even to this day.” Not only a good memory, but also a deep pride in having had the ‘Becca’ in the club’s history. And that melancholy mixed with the deep sadness of these hours accompanies us with yet another dribble of Evaristo’s life.”