On 1 June 1986, Parma-Sanremese was played at the Tardini. Certainly not a signature match for the eighties, but for posterity we can easily brand it as the beginning of a football era. Not even those who were on the pitch, probably, could have foreseen such a rosy future for Parma, who had just been relegated from Serie B but wanted to immediately regain their place. The ducal president Ceresini, with the sporting director Sogliano, entrusted the bench to a forty-year-old named Arrigo Sacchi, coming from Rimini where he had coached for two seasons. Mussi is confirmed from the previous year, the Primavera centre-forward, Alessandro Melli, is promoted.
Thus the climb begins. A defeat in the entire first half of the season, only four goals conceded despite an attacking game and with particular attention to the non-possession phase. In the last match there is a point between Parma and Piacenza, in the distant Emilian derby. The draw was enough to land in Serie B, Sanremese had already been relegated, the result remained in the balance until the end of the first half: Melli broke the deadlock, then Marco Rossi doubled the lead, 38 years ago.
The following year Parma managed to eliminate Nils Liedholm’s Milan during a Coppa Italia match, with Berlusconi remaining fascinated by the beautiful game and by what the gialloblù were able to express. The Milan of the Invincibles cycle was thus born in an anonymous Parma-Sanremese, and then went so far as to lift the World Cup.