The penalty shoot-out was over and Gianluigi Donnarumma posed a great mystery to the world. Could the goalkeeper not have overlooked what his last save had meant? So that Italy won against England at Wembley and thus won the European Championship? That he himself had become the hero who would later also be honored as the outstanding player of the tournament?
The riddle, it came from the fact that Donnarumma had defied convention. He hadn’t cheered and hadn’t gone aimlessly, as so many do at the moment of triumph. Nor had he fallen on his knees or done anything that promised joy. Rather, he looked like his job wasn’t done. He had just saved Bukayo Saka’s penalty and was already walking slowly towards the edge of the penalty area. He let his arms hang half-tense; his hands at waist height like a pistolero in front of the saloon, as if looking around to see if there was any danger from somewhere, as if he were holding his Colts in his holster at hand. It may still be impossible for him to leave the tunnel into which he had gone to put his hands on the EM trophy. Or was he waiting for the video referee? The VAR didn’t come; but already the comrades who rushed towards him from the center line and irresistibly sloshed over him like a heap of love incarnate.
“We are lucky that he is with us because he is the best goalkeeper in the world,” said Italy coach Roberto Mancini after the game. And the next day you could literally hear the smile when Dino Zoff answered a few questions from the SZ on the phone in Italy. Among other things, those who revolved around whether Italy needed an epoch-making goalkeeper to get a trophy. Just like Zoff was, back then, at the European Championship victory in 1968 and the World Cup triumph in 1982. Or like Gianluigi Buffon, Donnarumma’s namesake and role model, when he recorded the 2006 World Cup.
Zoff was 26 years old and only on the way to becoming the legend he would later become when he won Italy’s first (and only until Sunday) European Championship title. Donnarumma, on the other hand, is only 22 “and already a big one,” as Zoff explained. Donnarumma, who will be leaving AC Milan this summer and will only be unemployed for the time being, is a “physically outstanding goalkeeper” who “despite his height (1.96 meters) has terrific reactive skills,” says Zoff.
He is actually almost as elastic and agile as the much smaller Swiss Yann Sommer; and he is “blessed with a determination and instinct that made him a vital contributor to victory on penalties”. Said Zoff on Monday morning. By then he had already been able to read how much the land lay at Donnarumma’s feet, in thick and thin letters.
“Instead of Gigi we now have Gigio!” Says Chiellini about Donnarumma
“The hero”, “the myth” languished him La Repubblica at; Donnarumma is “the giant who protected us all”, “the Everest of this team”. The expansion of Donnarumma’s nickname and surname into superlatives read so fluently that it will soon be officially recognized by the Academy for Italian Language: “Gigionissimo” was one neologism, “Donnarummissimo” another. Is there more? Oh yes: Donnarumma is “the impregnable windmill” with gigantic wings, he will soon be called “Le Moulin Jaune”. As is well known, the Moulin Rouge is already in Paris, and Donnarumma will soon sign with Paris Saint-Germain. This is where the most interesting goalkeeper duel in Europe is emerging. Because the club has just extended the contract with the Costa Rican Keylor Navas. Although he’s already 34, he still has the reflexes of a young tomcat.
Like a windmill with gigantic wings: Gianluigi Donnarumma saves Bukayo Saka’s penalty.
(Photo: Mike Egerton / AP)
On the other hand: What would Donnarumma have been without “the wall of Europe” like that Gazzetta dello Sport About central defender Giorgio Chiellini, 37, and Leo Bonucci, who was three years younger than him, who took a selfie with the trophy in Chiellini’s hotel bed? “DBC”, meaning Donnarumma, Bonucci and Chiellini, were fundamental to the Italian title in every way, although Donnarumma and Bonucci had been somewhat overshadowed by the great Chiellini. It was a fine template of fate that Bonucci compensated for Luke Shaw’s early opening goal (2nd minute) (67th) and thus made the penalty shoot-out possible in which Donnarumma became the protagonist. “It was a historic goal, a dream come true,” said Bonucci. “We made history, we had Gigione on our side in the penalty shoot-out,” explained Captain Chiellini – and later posted emotional fragments of sentences on his social media account about everything that was “in front of” and “in your heart”: “The pain of those who have suffered. The tiredness of those who were brought to their knees during the pandemic. The desire to live again. The faces of women, men, old people, young people, children and those who Saved lives: the doctors. “
He’d had a few words of appreciation for Donnarumma on Italian TV. “What should I say about him?” He asked, “instead of Gigi we now have Gigio!” And Dino Zoff also sees him on the best way to become the defining goalkeeper figure in the coming years. “He’s so young that he can shape an era got to! “said Zoff. Donnarumma’s best game was the match against Belgium in Munich, when he showed” the perfect save “against Kevin De Bruyne. Donnarumma conceded four goals in seven games.
Only Donnarumma was reluctant, he forbade drawing parallels to the now 42-year-old Buffon. “Gigi is incomparable,” he argued. But he is in his own way too. He was born near Naples, in a place called Castellammare di Stabia; but he made his professional debut in the north at the age of 16 with AC Milan, which he once called his heart club.
The fact that he still follows the call of the money and probably signs with Paris St.-Germain is something that many Italians take it easy on him. As “Dollarumma” his name was corrupted – at least before his canonization after the final. Tempi passati, once upon a time. The only thing left to look into is the future. And as he imagined the future for himself, Donnarumma smiled as if he knew what was to come. “This was just the beginning,” he said.