A curious report this week in the Italian media: Sandro Tonali makes a definitive switch from Brescia to AC Milan for an amount of 16.9999 million euros. The striking amount has everything to do with superstition. After negotiations, both clubs reached an amount of seventeen million euros, only that is seen as an unlucky number in Italy.
The 21-year-old Tonali is seen in Italy as one of the most talented midfielders. In recent years, Brescia’s youth product has been frequently associated with the biggest clubs in Serie A. The battle for the signature of the four-time Italian international was finally won by AC Milan last year. The club from Milan reportedly trumped clubs such as Internazionale and Juventus and initially hired him for a season for an amount of 10 million euros. Italian media reported at the time that Milan had negotiated a purchase option worth 15 million euros. Due to variable bonuses, the total amount for Brescia could increase by 10 million euros, bringing the total amount to 35 million.
AC Milan would like to use the option to permanently take over Tonali from the club from the Serie B. However, the club management was no longer interested in paying the agreed amount. The transfer fee was renegotiated and a new deal was put on the table. Both clubs arrived at a fixed transfer fee of seventeen million euros, an amount that can increase even further through various bonuses. Brescia owner Massimo Cellino just did not agree. He has decided to give Milan a small discount on Tonali. According to transfer expert Gianluca Di Marzio, the midfielder will transfer to the San Siro for 16.9999 million euros. The reason? Cellino is superstitious and 17 is an unlucky number in Italy.
While in most countries the number 13 is known as an unlucky number, in Italy 17 is the number that superstitious people avoid in every way imaginable. For example, there is no row 17 on the planes of the Italian airline Alitalia. When the French model Renault R17 came on the market in the 1970s, it was given the name R177 in Italy. In Italian hotels, 17 is rarely used as a room number. But why number 17? For the reason we have to go back to the time of the Romans. The number is written in Latin as XVII. The word VIXI can also be written with this letter combination. Vixi means in Latin: I have lived. In other words, I’m dead.
Superstitious as he is, Cellino wants nothing to do with the Italian unlucky number. The discount on Tonali’s transfer fee is not the first action in football that makes the news. When he owned Cagliari, the seats numbered 17 were changed to 16B. In the summer of 2014, Cellino, who also does not want to know anything about the color purple, went one step further. Coincidence or not: Michael Brown, who played with jersey number 17 in the 2013/14 season, was allowed to leave. At the time, he had only owned Leeds United for a few months. The jersey number was then no longer distributed under Cellino’s rule. Goalkeeper Paddy Kenny experienced an even more extreme situation. Cellino instructed then-trainer Dave Hockaday to leave Kenny out of the roster. according to The Guardian he had found out that the closing post’s birthday is on May 17th.
Cellino believed that Kenny’s date of birth would bring bad luck. The goalkeeper, who at the time was one of the big earners with a salary of almost 12,000 euros a week, was then not allowed to go on a training camp to Italy and would never play a match for Leeds again. He was left without a club and was picked up by Bolton Wanderers later that year. Cellino would also have been disturbed by the keeper’s overweight, which, according to The Guardian would also have played a part in the club owner’s rigorous decision, as was the fact that Leeds was trying to cut costs in the salary house at the time. However, he is said to have reacted emotionally when he found out that Kenny had a connection with the unlucky number. Leeds United kept quiet about the rumor in the media, but revealed weeks later that Kenny’s contract had been dissolved.
For the origin of Cellino’s extreme distrust of the number 17, we have to go back to the period in which he owned Cagliari. In 1992 the striking Cellino became the youngest chairman in Serie A at 36 years old. For 22 years he stayed with Cagliari, where he experienced many sporting highs and lows. In 1999, the club took over François Modesto from Bastia on a free transfer. The French defender opted for number 17 in his second season in Sardinia. Cellino preferred not to, but agreed. The chairman felt that it was time to let go of his superstitions. That season, it didn’t work at all at Cagliari. The club was in a disappointing 11th place in June and promotion was far out of reach. Cellino cursed Modesto and banned the infamous jersey number. In the season that followed, the Frenchman played with number 4.
It was during this period that Cellino changed the seats in the Sant’Elia Stadium from number 17 to 16B. Still, the song continued to haunt the chairman. In the 2011/12 season, the competition match against Novara was scheduled for September 17. Cellino, who is firmly convinced that the color purple brings bad luck, asked all supporters to come dressed in the pair to the game against Novara. The collective exorcism proved successful: Cagliari won 2-1 through goals from Thiago Ribeiro and Joaquín Larrivey. “The whole stadium was purple,” a happy Cagliari told Italian media afterwards. “We won because unhappiness is like algebra: minus plus minus is plus. Purple and 17 went plus together and we won. But this was the only time.”
Massimo Cellino dressed in purple during Cagliari – Novara.
On Saturday, May 29, 2004, superstition for Cellino also played an important role in a crucial game of Cagliari. In the battle for promotion to Serie A, Salernitana was the opponent. For Cagliari, the match did not start as hoped. When Siyabonga Nmovethe opened the scoring on behalf of the visitors, Cellino got a sense that something was in the air that had left his club behind. After some time he understood where it went wrong: two cars were parked right next to the field that were used for promotion by a local car dealer. Cellino was convinced that these cars were a source of negative energy. After he had the cars removed, David Suazo and Mauro Esposito scored with their goals before Cagliari won 3-1 and was promoted to Serie A. Cellino patted himself after the promotion: “I had the cars removed immediately and you saw the result.”
Superstition has always carried Cellino with him. He did that at Leeds United and also at his current club Brescia. In the summer of 2019, the arrival of Mario Balotelli was completed on Friday evening, August 16 at 11.45 pm and officially submitted to the Italian federation. However, the club chose not to release the news until Sunday, August 18. Cellino did not want Balotelli to be introduced as the newest addition on August 17. That would also be the reason why the parties involved worked long Friday evening to get the paperwork in order: Cellino wanted to avoid the August 17 date in every way. Almost two years later, a similar situation arises with Tonali’s final departure. Except for the discount on the transfer fee, Cellino does not want the transfer to be announced on Tuesday. The Brescia owner hates Tuesdays.