Farewell to Aldo Hugo Sallustro, the man who made Panini stickers great

There was a time when figurines were much more than a pastime. They were a ritual gesture, a small backyard economy, an invisible community of 'I got it, I got it, I miss it'. Aldo Hugo Sallustro, who died on Monday 21 April 2025 at the age of 75, understood - before many - that behind that childish gesture lay a material culture, an industry of sentiment, a mass popular archaeology.

Argentinean by birth (in Buenos Aires), Modenese by vocation, Sallustro was a man who lived in the long time Italian industrial tradition, the one made up of family names that became planetary brands. His father Oberdan was at the top of Fiat in South America, while his uncle Attila had made footballing Naples fall in love from 1926 to 1937. He could have stayed in the family fold, but he chose the more subtle, less predictable path: that of the figurines. His death was sudden, according to Corriere della Sera, Gazzetta dello Sport and Gazzetta di Mantova, which were the first to report the news.

At the helm of Panini since 1991, Sallustro has seen the company pass through important hands: Bain Gallo Cuneo, De Agostini, Marvel and Merloni's Fineldo. But he has remained firmly at the helm, guardian of a brand that has put down deep roots in Modena. Yet, in this long transition, the Sallustro name had remained the fixed point, the guarantor of a possible continuity.

In 2016 he became owner together with the Baroni sisters. The company, founded by the Panini brothers in 1961, now sells over 5 billion stickers a year, generating a turnover of over 1.5 billion euros. Multinational numbers, but with a heart that still beats under the Ghirlandina.