Berlusconi returns to the football elite in Italy

The legend of immortality, the fame of always achieving what he set out to do - even if it was paying - always accompanied Silvio Berlusconi during his youth.

Il Cavaliere was prime minister three times, he refounded Italian politics with an electoral artifact halfway between the party and the advertising company, he slipped away from dozens of lawsuits, he was convicted of tax fraud and he showed that, unlike what he believed African-American poet and singer Gill Scott-Heron, the revolution was going to be televised.

At least yours.

At 86, however, no one expected that the owner of Mediaset, recently engaged to Marta Fascina, a 32-year-old Forza Italia deputy who always accompanies him in the stands, would be in a position to fulfill the dream of a handful of

.

Calcio Monza, a club that was bought only three years ago when it was suffering in Serie C suffocated in debt, certified its promotion to Serie A on Sunday for the first time in its centenary history and after beating Pisa in the final of the play- off.

A feat that will allow the tycoon to sit back in the box of a first division club in Italy.

Berlusconi traveled to Pisa yesterday to watch the match with his girlfriend in the stadium's grandstand.

He was seen to enjoy, suffer, applaud and even fall asleep in injury time without actually seeing one of Pisa's goals.

Owner and architect of AC Milan who made history with Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello, he decided in 2017 to sell the

, which beyond the titles, had also allowed him to present himself as someone supposedly capable of politics.

The new owner was going to be a Chinese who almost thought it really existed.

Il Cavaliere then received 740 million, an exorbitant amount for how the club was doing and that many people thought was part of a money laundering operation.

Beyond the suspicions, the move freed him from one more headache after a turbulent time of trials, political problems and poor football results.

But football is missed, and after three years he couldn't get the smell of wet grass out of his head, the adrenaline of the box and that of going down to the locker room to dictate the line-up to the coach and tell jokes to the players.

Bored in his mansion in Arcore, just three kilometers from Monza,

received a call from his friend Adriano Galliani.

The former CEO of AC Milan did not have to insist too much.

Silvio Berlusconi, this Sunday in Pisa, where his team, Monza, has achieved promotion to Serie A.Gabriele Masiero (EFE)

Fininvest, the conglomerate of companies owned by Berlusconi, bought the Monza from businessman Nicola Colombo in September 2018 for 3 million euros.

Its president today is Paolo Berlusconi, the businessman's little brother, and he is trained by Giovanni Stroppa, a former Milan player, who has already successfully managed small teams with attractive projects such as Crotone (which also rose to Serie A) or Südtirol.

Although perhaps what is truly fascinating is that in the tandem that he designed the project pedaled two old rockers from this business who are 162 years old together.

Galliani's nose had to be paired, as in the old days, with Berlusconi's checkbook (in the last three years Milan swallowed 225 million euros).

The club has today invested some 70 million euros between players and infrastructure such as the stadium,

with capacity for 9,999 spectators.

No entity in that category had ever done it.

Losses are significant every year.

And Series A, although it will give revenue, will force us to continue pumping money.

The signings were falling with the goals.

They played at Monza Kevin Prince Boateng and even Mario Balotelli, whom Cristian Brocchi, the coach at the time, fired after verifying that his brain had dried up his talent long ago.

Even so, the members of the Monza squad, Berlusconi warned upon his arrival, should be cut by a single pattern: exemplary clothing, image and behavior.

The first frontier to play in the team was to be Italian and young.

But in addition, he planned to require them to be well groomed, a company for which he himself contemplated providing a free hairdresser to all players.

"They will have it to show off a classic hairstyle, they will not be able to wear a beard or tattoos and their uniform or clothing will have a sober cut."

Il Cavaliere also wanted this exemplary group of Italians to address the referees “as gentlemen”.

But Berlusconi was never someone concerned with forms, but rather with results.

And the tattoos are still on the players' arms, but Monza are already in Serie A.

The dream now, no one hides it, is to repeat a feat like the one he carried out at AC Milan, also sunk when he bought it.

That same summer he took out the checkbook and brought

players like Roberto Donadoni, Daniele Massaro, Dario Bonetti and Giovanni Galli to the

Berlusconi appeared in the old facilities of the Milan Arena by helicopter to the

He seemed like a crazy flamboyant, but the success of AC Milan was the springboard to political triumph for him.

Who knows if, at 85 years old, still able to promise himself and keep some football promises, he will somehow land in the old Brianteo.

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