MILAN – A friendly match took place today on the artificial pitch at the Centro Sportivo Giacinto Facchetti between Boston Braves and Glorie Nerazzurre, a team made up of former Inter players.
Boston Braves were set up over 10 years ago by Spiros Tourkakis, when he organised the first international tournament between former professional footballers from European clubs and amateur US teams. Tourkakis explained: "The aim is to create a world championship with ex-players held in the United States to help further popularise this wonderful sport. We have played against great names from the past from many professional clubs: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Ajax, CSKA Moscow, Liverpool, Chelsea and Juventus. But we had never had the honour of playing in Milan. Yesterday and today we took on AC Milan and Inter and these were proud moments for us, giving even more meaning to the project."
Today the Braves, who picked up their nickname after 9/11 when flying was considered an act of courage following the attack on the World Trade Center, took on Inter Master. Alberto Rovatti, with the collaboration of Gianpiero Marini, founded Inter Master in 1997 and these former Inter stars toured Italy collecting funds for charity.
Thanks to Francesco Toldo's support, today's match was played in the name of Inter Campus, and consequently on behalf of all those needy children who, through Inter Campus and football, have found something to bring a little happiness into their lives. For the record, Inter won by five goals to one. This afternoon the representatives of the Boston Braves will pay a visit to the Stadio Meazza in San Siro, before going on to Inter's headquarters. "It's an honour for us to lend our support to one of the Inter Campus projects," concluded Tourkakis. "This is a wonderful initiative that we are totally behind."
Francesco Toldo was interviewed by reporters from Top Calcio 24. After he had explained the aim of the match, the former Inter goalkeeper was asked about the situation of the first team: "Inter are still reigning world champions and they deserve respect," he said. "I'm certain that with Ranieri at the helm things will start going better in the league now, too." And the criticism aimed at Julio Cesar? "Julio is a champion."
