Annalisa Bulgarelli on her smiling father Giacomo

With it being Father’s Day in Italy on Sunday, we are continuing to catch up with the children of club icons. After Angelo Schiavio’s daughter Marcella spoke, it was the turn of Annalisa who is Giacomo Bulgarelli’s daughter.

“He was a great dad, always cheerful and smiling, ready to make jokes even in difficult situations,” said Annalisa. “His kindness meant that he was always surrounded by friends whether they were his, mine or those of my brothers Stefano and Andrea. When we used to organise big parties in the summer, our friends used to race to meet him. If he wasn’t there because he was working late, they’d refuse to leave before he came back because they knew he’d whip up a nice meal and we used to see the sun rise many times all together!”

You were his only daughter, what brought you together? “Because I was the only girl we had a special relationship,” she added. “He was my point of reference and I told him everything. I remember when he went to Japan to follow the World Cup that we had long phone calls across continents because I needed to hear him.”

Was he protective? “Not particularly. He used to come and pick me up when I worked in a nightclub as a girl but always with my mum and a friend and he also did it for entertainment as the DJ would play older songs for the customers who recognised him. He had lots of friends but he was very close to Toro and Orazio who had been his friends since forever. Orazio had a shop on via Clavature and dad would always go there to see him when he could. The shop was always full of people buying wool and he’d ask silly questions about it. At other times he’d pretend to be a tourist and ask for directions to piazza Maggiore. Ottavio was in on the joke and would give him the wrong directions so the customers would intervene to tell him the right way.”

I imagine everyone used to recognise him on the street… “Yes he was always recognised and he had something good to say to everybody, even when he was in a hurry. Perhaps it was because of his open character that the people in Bologna always loved him. I remember once there was a lorry collecting rubbish and the people working on the lorry saw him and ran over to meet him and he stopped happily to speak with them.”

In the summer we used to go on holiday to Milano Marittima and there would always be people from Bologna or other tourists asking for an autograph. When he had work he would come for the weekends but he never went on the beach as I don’t think he liked it. He preferred to buy five or six newspapers and spend the morning in the bar discussing the news with his friends.”

Do you remember him as a player? “I have one image from the end of a match when I was about seven. The match had finished and the players were going back into the dressing rooms. Me and my brothers were in the stand and dad stopped to say hello to us. When he stopped playing and moved into commentating I went with him to some games and sat by him as he worked. He always supported Bologna and we knew that it was better to leave him alone for a while when they lost.”
What hobbies did he have outside of football? “He was always a sportsperson and he played tennis. He also liked road cycling and he’d go on long rides with friends when he had Sundays free and they’d stop to eat in a Trattoria somewhere.”

You and your brothers gave him four grandchildren, what was Giacomo like as a grandfather? “He was loving, a perfect granddad. He wanted the best for our children. He’s missed today. Sometimes I find myself talking to him in the evenings and I have the impression that he’s still here with us, smiling as he always used to”