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And now you'll have to permit me the indulgence of writing about the one year they won the whole thing.
"Cagliari have tormented and humiliated Inter at the San Siro in front of 70 thousand spectators. Gigi Riva, who they call Rombo di Tuono, deserved every one of them." - Gianni Brera, 1970
Gigi Riva, the "Roar of Thunder" whose name is forever associated with Cagliari, was born in Lombardy in 1944. After a difficult childhood and adolescence as a young orphan in a strict religious boarding school, the many hours he spent escaping his troubles by playing football in the churchyard paid off as he joined a local amateur club team, then was quickly signed to Serie C professional side Legnano, where Cagliari's scouts found him after only one season. The orphan from Lombardy packed his bags and left the foggy north for an island that was then much poorer, much stranger, and much further away than it is today.
Riva’s nickname as Rombo di Tuono was well earned. His style of play was physical and imposing, with tremendous speed and a powerful left foot that could fire off cannon-like shots from any range. He was the prototypical winger, combining sublime dribbling skills with a fanatical instinct for goals, a mix of elegance and force, delicacy and strength. He announced his presence boldly from the moment he stepped on the pitch until the final whistle blew.
Riva was widely acknowledged as the finest striker in Italy of his generation, and as such all the big clubs ended up clamoring for his signature. Juventus, Milan and Inter all offered hefty transfers and large wages to tempt Riva away from his Cagliari, but he would have none of it.
Even for the time, Riva’s refusal to leave his “provincial” team raised eyebrows. Today, when we are accustomed to seeing the world’s top players either float around as journeymen or remain for long periods at the richest and most famous clubs they can find, it is almost inconceivable. But Cagliari and Sardinia had adopted Gigi Riva, the lonely orphaned boy from Lombardy, and he had no intention of betraying his new home.
In the 1969-1970 season, everything came together for Cagliari. Riva was the spearhead of the attack, and in goal was the sensational Ricky Albertosi. The defensive line was held together by Comunardo Niccolai, son of outspoken leftist activists, who would in the future become just as infamous for a series of spectacular own-goals as for his peculiar name, but at the time was a tough and solid stopper at the height of his powers. On the manager’s bench was Manlio Scopigno, nicknamed “The Philosopher.” A strong team well coached, but the central figure was undoubtedly Riva. His charisma on the pitch could drag the entire team by the scruff of their necks towards the scrappiest and unlikeliest of victories, then as time went on they began to look less and less unlikely. Cagliari found themselves winter champions just after the turn of the year 1970, and from there it was only a matter of willpower to keep up the momentum and then, improbably but also somehow inevitably, capture the Scudetto.
Cagliari were the first “meridionale” team to win the title, defined as coming from the South of Italy and the two islands, in opposition to the usual domination of Northern Italian teams like Milan, Juve and Inter. For the population of Sardinia, it was a moment of galvanizing pride. For at least a little while, the poor, rural, distant island had made the rest of the country sit up and take notice, and in the end even salute in respect. For a team like Cagliari, one Scudetto can mean as much as five titles all together for the likes of Milan or Juve - and for Riva, it was a simple and elegant validation of his even then surprising choice to spend his entire career in Cagliari.
(Full disclosure: parts of this article originally appeared in a piece I wrote for ItalianFootballDaily.com in 2015.)
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