On 2 November 1999, Barcelona-Fiorentina was played at the Franchi stadium in Florence. On the pitch there are Rui Costa and Chiesa on one side, Rivaldo and Figo on the other. A stellar match for the last day of the Champions League group. However, the person who takes the spotlight is a little unknown in European football, while in Italy he had been a more than honest peddler. Mauro Bressan had grown up in Milan in the shadow of the three Dutchmen, giants like van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard, but also Baresi and Gullit. The fact that he never wears it with the first team is a subtle issue, because it ends up in Catuzzi’s Foggia, the final epilogue of the extraordinary film called Zemanlandia.
In 1999, at the age of 28, Fiorentina and Giovanni Trapattoni called him to play in the Champions League. He had already been trained by the coach during his time at Cagliari, while here he is used both in midfield and on the right wing. There are several stars in purple, such as Torricelli and Di Livio, Mijatovic and Batistuta, in addition to those already mentioned.
Then comes the day that should change your life, that is November 2nd. A ball bounces ten meters outside the line of the area, Bressan can’t control it and so he tries with an overhead kick. The ball takes an extraordinary trajectory that leads him to end up in the top corner, unstoppable. “I always tried overhead kicks in training, they weren’t new to me – said Bressan – that time everything went right and scoring like that under Fiesole against the great Barcelona was a unique emotion. I still get shivers today. It was something that came to me naturally, as it happened to me as a child.”