Lancellotti taught a generation of Brazilians to follow European football

A part of the culture of international football in Brazil started with Silvio Lancellotti. Not that he was a pioneer. In the past, Luiz Mendes, in Rio, or Solange Bibas, in São Paulo, brought results and trends from abroad in their own way. Or Roberto Petri, who claimed to be a San Lorenzo fan, although he was always São Paulo on all fours.

But Lancellotti was part of the team of commentators at Bandeirantes, the sports channel, when the Italian Championship helped teach a generation of Brazilians to understand what Milan, the Dutch Gullit and Van Basten were, Internazionale, the Germans Brehme and Matthäus, Napoli, by Careca and Maradona.

When the Band started broadcasting Italiano, on Sunday mornings, the first commentator was Flávio Prado. Soon after, with World Cup duties close by, a mix of reporter and commentator, Prado gave up his place to Lancellotti. The broadcasts had narrations by Silvio Luiz and the special company of Giovanni Bruno, just to give a taste of the cuisine and stories of Italy.

At that time, Silvio Lancellotti was the envy. He had a satellite dish in his house and lectured on games that Brazilian TV did not show. In the late 1980s, early 1990s, there was still no pay TV and satellite dishes were the way to watch the strongest teams in the world, in the middle of the week – the Band showed Italy’s Serie A on Sundays.

also wrote in Sheet weekly, on the eve of the World Cup in Italy. Not everything that Silvio Lancellotti told was absolutely believable. The stories of Sebastiano Rossi, Milan goalkeeper, shark hunter. Or when he said, later, on ESPN, that he attended Argentina’s concentration, in the 1990 World Cup, with a tape measure, to measure the diameter of Maradona’s injured ankle.

Silvio was a storyteller. An architect by training, he worked as a journalist from 1968 onwards, he worked in important newsrooms, starting with Veja magazine. Corinthian in Brazil, Juventus in Italy, bon-vivant by profession.

Leave pleasure for good taste, for the good things in life. And, as a legacy, a generation that learned to watch European football with their commentary and analysis.

Mille grazie, Silvio!