The purchase of the Monza football team in 2018 seemed like another fad of the oldies. Silvio Berlusconi’s photo. The controversial boss and former Italian prime minister had just sold Milan. He was also nervous about his political adventures. But Berlusconi took the gauntlet and achieved a task that many saw as a laugh: Climb Monza, then a small Italian club from the C series (the third category of the Italian Calcio) to the A series.

that a success Achieved after Monza beat Pisa 4-3 in Sunday’s playoff final. It’s unprecedented in the centuries-old history of this Italian team, founded in 1912. Berlusconi enthusiastically commented, “A historic result.”

He celebrated his victory in person from the Pisa stadium, accompanied by his 32-year-old girlfriend, Marta Fascina, who is the deputy of Forza Italia, a party he founded. “We fought for a long year,” said Monza, emphasizing that “in 110 years of history” he had never reached such a result, “It’s a great thing for us and the team.”

Pure ‘Berlusconian’ style

The moral is pure ‘Berlusconian’ style. A mix between the talents of the old Berlusconi (Milan, 1936) ability to surround oneself with ex-work foxes and easily open the checkbook. Despite barely paying 2.7 million for Monza, it has had to invest a total of 71.7 million so far, as Italian newspaper ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’, which specializes in economic issues, recently announced.

It’s not surprising. Because in reality, the team’s dizzying growth has been accompanied by Monza’s red numbers since the first day it was acquired by Fininvest, owned by the Berlusconi family. Something worsened by the pandemic, so much so that the Monza deficit reached 26m euros in 2020 and 31m euros in 2021.

Galliani, his loyal squire

Few things matter to Berlusconi. With the help of staunch Adriano Galliani, former dauphin in Milan and now CEO of Monza, and coach Giovanni Stroppa, The Italian businessman, a former Milanista player, has not stopped investing in the small team for years. He did so while once again drawing attention to his quirks, including asking his actors to wear well-groomed hair and not have tattoos or earrings in their ears.

It worked. Italian and international media ran rivers of ink to recount Monza’s adventures, despite the fact that the story was a mirage. So much so that finally personalities like celebrities Kevin Prince Boateng and Mario BalotelliBoth are heavily tattooed. The two eccentric forwards were short-lived and packed their bags when Monza began its final journey to Serie A last summer.