Unforgettable champions and "bins", idols and mysterious objects: on 9 May 1980 the Federal Council approved the return of foreigners to Serie A, in the hope of shaking her out of the soccer betting scandal. Many left their mark on the field, others only in the television sections such as 'Never say goals', to which they often offered comic ideas rather than sports.
In that first post-autarchy transfer market 11 foreigners were enrolled and, after the forgotten Luis Silvio (who dressed six times in the Pistoia shirt and then returned to Brazil to manage a drinks kiosk on the beach), there were several excellent players - Bertoni to Fiorentina, Brady to Juventus, Krol to Naples, Van de Korput to Turin, Juary to Avellino, Prohaska to Inter - and an authentic champion: Paulo Roberto Falcao, who would have brought back the scudetto in yellow and red, so much to be crowned by fans like "the eighth king of Rome".
There was a taste: the following year seven other foreigners arrived in Italy; in 1982 they rose to two per club and were hired 18. Juventus strengthened with "Le Roi" Michel Platini and Boniek, nicknamed by the lawyer Agnelli "Bello di notte" because it shone especially on the Cup nights. In 1983 the blow struck him Udinese, securing Arthur Antunes Coimbra, for all Zico: taken from Flamengo for 8 billion of the old lire. But among the gods of the ball, in 1984 a certain Diego Armando Maradona would arrive: 188 games and 111 goals with the Napoli shirt, to win two badges, an Italian Cup and a UEFA Cup.
The blockade of foreigners was decided after the defeat with North Korea at the 1966 World Cup. Much of the responsibility for that flop, in fact, were placed on the oriundi, guilty of having watered down the Italian football knowledge. Only foreigners already in Italy were allowed to stay. But the autarchy, if on the one hand revitalized the blue (with the victory of the European Championship in '68, plus a second and fourth place in the world), depressed the results of the clubs in the continental field. And so, for the 1980/81 season, the reopening was decided with the limit of only one player per team.
Over the years, other champions such as Socrates and Rumenigge, Van Basten and Batistuta, Ronaldo and Gascoigne, up to the current Ibrahimovic and CR7 (but the list has no claim to be exhaustive) have embellished the championship, interspersed with not a few meteors: who do you remember Rui Aguas, a Portuguese striker from Reggiana, or Sergio Fortunato, an Argentine from Perugia? Someone simply could not settle down. Like Eneas, who discovered snow in Bologna, he decided he didn't like it and after only one season he returned to his beloved Brazil.