Dozens of soccer balls lost by children for decades appeared on the roof of a church in Italy

After the Azzurri lost the World Cup for the second time in a row, many observers cited among the factors of the Italian football crisis the fact that there are fewer and fewer children playing in the street, one of the places where the brightest talents traditionally emerged. That is why, perhaps not by chance, a photo that immortalized the discovery of dozens of soccer balls lost over decades on the roof of a church went viral these days.

The image, taken recently in front of the church of San Tommaso, in the center of Ascoli Piceno (Marche, center), has been circulating online for a few days. It shows a crane with a worker who cleans the roof of the building. Downstairs, in the square in front of the church, you can see dozens of soccer balls recovered from the roof, some new and others — most of them — old and blackened by time. The photo was shared in a Facebook group of residents of Ascoli and from there it went to Twitter, where it went viral.

The balls were found during the cleaning of the roof in view of the restoration of the building, damaged by the devastating earthquake that struck central Italy in 2016.

Generations of children sent them there by mistake, playing football in the square, in a scene that was common in Italian cities. In fact, even today in local football jargon there is still talk of “tiro alla viva il parroco” (shot towards the parish priest) or “un campanile” (a bell tower) when the ball rises vertically.

Several of the balls found have been there for decades. It was like finding a small football museum from the 20th century: there are plastic and leather models that have withstood rain, wind, summer sun and winter cold. He even found the ball of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.

“Those balls are the testimony of a football that was played in the Italian squares, in the paddocks of the parishes, where children and young people gathered to kick their first balls dreaming of becoming champions: and many have really managed to fulfill this desire,” commented the Sports Councillor of the Municipality of Ascoli Nico Stallone, former Serie C and B player with two appearances also in Serie A with Ascoli.

“It is no coincidence that the balls found are all very old,” the official concluded. “I can imagine the regret of those who were unable to recover them in due time, also because there were not many available. It was a nice time and who says that playing a little more in the street is not good for the socialization of boys and for Italian football.”

For his part, the mayor of Ascoli Piceno, Marco Fioravanti, preferred to emphasize that “some balls were recent”. “There are children who still play in the square today. They are less than they were a while ago, but there are,” he said.

Even so, most of the comments seemed to reflect nostalgia for a country where children ran through the squares without prohibitions, Italy participated in the World Cup and sometimes even won it.

Others, on the other hand, took the find with humor. As one user who commented: “The Italian strikers have never had good aim.”

Keep reading: