The bridge to cross between football and padel is wide, attractive and very, very short. Demetrio Albertini, ‘pioneer’ of padel&football and enchanted on the padel route between Barcelona and Madrid at the beginning of the new millennium, told us why the football player has an extra (and not only) gear when he decides to try the short racket route. And here, in the stands of the Allianz Cloud, the parade of footballers is important. The Argentinian colony, above all, poured into the stands for Belasteguin, Martin Di Nenno and Franco ‘Stupa’ Stupaczuk, Chingotto and Tapia, as well as the ‘chicas’ in Albiceleste: Delfi Brea and Maria Virginia Riera above all. And so there they were, Diego Milito, Rodrigo Palacio, Lucas Biglia, Esteban Cambiasso, Gabriel Paletta and Papu Gomez alternating between cheering in the stands and chatting on the Allianz forecourt with Bela.
The colony of Italians was graced by Antonio Cabrini, Beppe Bergomi, in a derby between ex-Milanisti and Interisti that also saw Serginho and Francesco Coco in the stands, as well as ex-Juve Nicola Amoruso. Rumours have bounced about an imminent arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a great fan of padel and like many of his colleagues still in the business of padel clubs. Ibra apparently could arrive on Sunday with a very large Milanese colony, from Giroud to Leao, from Bennacer to Theo Hernandez – Giacomo Murelli, Stefano Pioli’s assistant coach, was spotted on Thursday – along with two other Atalanta padel super fans, Juan Musso and Luis Muriel, last year’s follower of the Allianz Cloud VIP stand in the first edition of the Milano Premier Padel P1 adventure.