Italian football club Cesena will wear its away kit when it hosts Torino in a Serie A match this Sunday in tribute to perhaps its most famous fan – Marco Pantani.
The rider nicknamed Il Pirata, who came from nearby Cesenatico in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, was a supporter of the club.
The team’s usual home colours are black and white, while this season’s away kit is mainly pink, the colour chosen in honour of Pantani.
The club has chosen to wear the change strip in Sunday's home fixture to mark what would have been Pantani’s 45th birthday yesterday.
While pink is of course the colour of the jersey sported by the leader of the Giro d'Italia, Cesena is very much the lanterne rouge of Italian football's top flight at the moment.
Promoted to Serie A at the end of last season it is currently propping up the table with just 9 points from 18 matches.
A decade on from Pantani’s death on Valentine’s Day 2004 in a Rimini hotel room, investigations are still continuing in Italy as to the exact circumstances in which he died.
Pantani’s family insist he was murdered, although that theory has been dismissed by writers such as Matt Rendell, author of the 2006 book, The Death of Marco Pantani.
14 thoughts on “Serie A side Cesena go pink for Marco Pantani this weekend”
It is a good job Armstrong
It is a good job Armstrong never supported a team and died then
ianrobo wrote:It is a good
Why?
Kadinkski wrote:ianrobo
Well someone would have to find a yellow kit I suppose if you recognise cheats like this ?
ianrobo wrote:Well someone
But what’s wrong with yellow football kit? I’m sure its not that hard to find. Sorry, I just don’t get it.
Maybe you should ask the
Maybe you should ask the Canaries or the Bees about yellow strip?
ok lets make it
ok lets make it simpler.
Pantani is a drugs cheat, Lance was a drugs cheat, why celebrate the one, why not celebrate the other then ?
I hate all drugs cheats but to make one an hero is so stupid as it encourages more to do it.
ianrobo wrote:ok lets make it
You’re right – This football shirt will definitely have scores of young kids wanting to develop depressive tendencies and end up dying, alone in a hotel room of cocaine poisoning.
Both are legends of the
Both are legends of the sport, but, of their era. Both cheated to beat each other, one a bully, one a diva… The rest is history. I am more concerned about the state of football when teams want to openly employ a rapist still on licence, now that’s an issue………
actually you are right about
actually you are right about the state of football but actually should be about the drugs as per Fuentes and his links to various teams.
Cycling has had itself torn out over drugs but Tennis and football, both endurance sports and very few EPO found, yeah right.
To compete at that level and
To compete at that level and win amongst ( at the time ) 18 out of 20 pro teams that were doping, you still have to have the talent and drive to win. Both were fantastic cyclists and unless I am mistaken, Pantani is still the only cyclist to have won the Giro and Tour in the same year.
I don’t condone cheating but those guys still trained hard. Just because you have some epo or steroids does not mean you are going to fly unless your already working.
Gareth W-R wrote:TPantani is
thats the excuse for everyone to drug as it will simply level up the playing field. How about those who want to ride clean and compete on natural ability alone.
Don’t you think the fact you won both in the same season is very telling about how he did the drugs ? In that era he had to be doing it really well ?
There is no defence for any of them, they nearly brought the sport to brink of extinction and it still rebounds now.
Gareth W-R wrote:…….
You are mistaken. Stephen Roche won both in 1987….as well as the Worlds.
The Palermo shirt has always
The Palermo shirt has always looked like this.
Its quite strange. I used to
Its quite strange. I used to hate armstrong. You should have seen the abuse i sent him on twitter, i’m actually embarrased by it.
But a couple of months ago i saw The Armstrong Lie (it’s available in full for free on vimeo) and i found my attitude to him changing. Although i guess the point of the film was to demonise him, i actually quite like him again now. I guess I just understand the context better.