GORIZIA (ITALPRESS) – His baritone voice, that understated style in telling what was happening on the field, for everyone the commentator par excellence and, above all, the voice of the national team for more than 15 years. On the threshold of his 87th birthday – he would have blown out his candles on Saturday – Bruno Pizzul, an icon of Italian journalism, passed away at Gorizia Hospital.
“He always had the look of a professor and an austere gendarme, one of those who stood guard in the square of his village, Cormons,” Franco Zuccalà, with whom he had shared many away trips following the Azzurri, described him a few years ago. A native Friulian, he attempted a career as a footballer without great satisfaction-he also played with Catania, Udinese and Torres-after graduating in law and teaching Italian in Trieste, he won the competition for commentator, joining RAI in the late 1960s. His first match he commented on was a Coppa Italia play-off, Juve-Bologna, on April 8, ’70, his first final West Germany-Urss 3-0 at the ’72 European Championships. For RAI he narrated the main matches of Italian clubs in the cups, including the Heysel final, “the commentary I never wanted to do,” he confessed.
In the role of anchor between “Domenica Sportiva,” “Sport Sera” and “Domenica Sprint,” however, Pizzul tied his career above all to the national team, picking up the baton from Nando Martellini starting with the 1986 World Cup. He would commentate on the Azzurri’s matches until August 21, 2002 (Italy-Slovenia 0-1), spanning five World Cups and four European Championships, with his only regret being that he did not get to narrate a triumph like the one in Madrid in ’82 or the one in Berlin in 2006. But the Magic Nights of Italia ’90 were accompanied by his unmistakable timbre: it is impossible not to think of Schillaci’s goals and the Azzurri’s path to the bitter semifinal with Argentina without Pizzul’s voice in the background. A polished lexicon, a simple way of life (he never took a driver’s license and preferred to get around on his “velocipede,” or bicycle), he tiptoed into the homes and hearts of Italians, becoming almost one of the family. This is also why, as Pizzul put it, “it (was) all very nice.”
– Photo Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
