Balestrieri, collector of T-shirts, scarves and sports gear. But only from teams from small countries and northern Europe

Massimo Morelli

Paolo Ballesteri is an all-round collector, because his passion concerns several sectors, even if they can all be linked to sports and football in particular.

“I have always enjoyed collecting football-related items such as jerseys and scarves. But be careful, not those of the big clubs, it would be very simple – explained Ballesteri – my interest is in the small teams of small countries, especially Scandinavian football ». How a passion of this kind is born, he himself explains to us. “It all started when I began to correspond with friends from distant countries, the so-called pen friends, who asked me for football materials related to Italy while I asked them for materials from their countries – said Paolo – this exchange of letters had a certain charm connected with the envelope that came with stamps Beautiful postage from far away countries then with time we moved to email which is definitely faster but totally loses its charm.With time I have collected several volumes telling the history of football in small countries, such as the one about football in San Marino or the book In which we talk about the good performance of Iceland in the European Championship 2016. Then we come to the shirts of the game. Ballestereri said: “I have one of the first jerseys of the San Marino national team, in addition to the jerseys of the Iceland team – as Ballesteri said – without forgetting the pins or pins The teams of Gibraltar, Andorra, Faroe Islands and Iceland. The most curious piece? Definitely a team from the capital of Greenland, which is also the “capital” in the far north of the world. This is a nok brooch in Danish Godthab. One of his greatest interests is purely domestic football, that is, it is associated with Vilno, the golden period that coincided with the participation in the second division championship.

“At home I have a small museum, with pictures from the past, the shirt number 11 that Sacani was wearing at that time, as well as a season ticket for the 1987/88 Rossoble team, I think the only museum that still exists – explained Paolo – I have many pictures but Now as far as Velino is concerned, there is less and less old material, but I do not give up looking for more ».