Lorenzo: on the pitch with two great assistants

L O R ENZO
There is a coach in South America who prays not for the victory of the game, but to be enlightened, so as to make wise decisions. This is Nestor Lorenzo, coach of the Colombian national team, who has always been devoted to Our Lady. In the notebook, which he takes to the bench, there are 2 Marian effigies: the Virgen de Lujan, and that of Chapi. They are maternal faces that accompany him at every juncture, in life as in sport.
DEVOTE

S HEVCHENKO
The war between Russia and Ukraine knows only fake truces, but sport does not surrender to horror. Andrij Shevchenko is the president of the Football Federation and is taking meritorious initiatives, such as organizing a tournament for amputees. It is quite impressive to hear him say: "We started with 2 teams, but now there are over 20". Football is adopted as an anti-war therapy, to be able to distract at least the children.
E R O I CO

V AN B AST EN
We don't live on football alone, so the decision of Marco Van Basten, a popular pundit on Dutch television, is moving. No more football, and maximum assistance to his wife Liesbeth, adverse by a serious illness. The "Swan of Utrecht", in front of which the great manager Galliani, jokingly, kneels, was not lucky, even in the context of a great career. His real opponents were his crystal ankles.
S E N S I B I L E

GAZ ZI
"I would like to dispel the myth of the ignorant footballer. My goal was to talk about the love for football, but also the hatred of anxiety and pressure, which comes with it." The one who explains is the former midfielder Alessandro Gazzi who has written an autobiographical book. The spring of inspiration was Agassi's book, which reported the traumas of the tennis player, in his love-hate relationship with the racket.
BPO & LRA

SCARPONI
Marco Scarponi leads the Foundation, born in the name of his brother Michele. He was the winner of the 2011 Giro d'Italia and was overwhelmed and killed, 8 years ago, in a terrible road accident. Marco's work is not only a mission in the name of security. In fact, the whole story of Michele, who knew how to fall, and then get up, even favoring, with his sacrifice, Nibali's success in the pink jersey is edifying.
M I S S IONAR IO

BARAKAT
Today, Assem Barakat is a 56-year-old Palestinian businessman. Before that, he was a player and coach of the Palestinian national basketball team. Since the 1987 Intifada, his life has changed because checkpoints have begun, walls have been erected everywhere, and his comrades in Gaza have been locked up in the Strip. For many players, death, bombing, and flight to Egypt have arrived. A decimated national team.
ORPHAN

MB OLADINGA
His name is Michel Kuka Mboladinga, a fan of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has accomplished a Guinness World Record feat. He followed the matches of the African Cup of Nations standing, perfectly still, in the stands, with his arm raised, as if to say hello. He wanted to evoke Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of an independent Congo, martyr of anti-colonialism, killed in 1961.
I N FAT ICABI L E


NP February 2026
Carlo Nesti