Farewell to Gian Paolo Ormezzano, sports journalism's most charismatic and fast-moving signature

"I'm done, so shall we go?" he would tell you with that air of a happy brat who has just broken a neighbour's glass with his slingshot. "Otherwise, we'll stop again, I'll also write my column for "Famiglia Cristiana" and the "Guerin Sportivo" so I'll get ahead....".

He was always ahead of the game Giampaolo Ormezzano, editor of Tuttosport (from 1974 to 1979) and a prestigious writer for 'La Stampa' until 1991, who died on Friday 27 December at the age of 89 in Turin. So far ahead that one could not always follow him in his brilliant ramblings. It is difficult to classify him, because although Ormezzano reported on all the major sporting events from the 1960s to the present day, he was not 'only' a sports journalist. To call him that, even though he maintained the nobility of this specialisation, would be reductive.

In fact, he was able to write on any subject, perhaps even better because in this way he did not let himself be conditioned by his inalienable loves: the first was cycling (one of his first reports as correspondent for 'Tuttosport' was on the death of Fausto Coppi, electrocuted by malaria on 2 January 1960); the second love was Turin in all its declinations, with an almost physical, inseparable bond, stronger than any misfortune (from the Superga crash to the incredible death of Gigi Meroni, run over by a car at just 24 years of age in 1967).

Sport, however, has always loved him. After practising skiing, football, basketball, swimming and running, and starting his career as a journalist at a very young age, Ormezzano became editor of Tuttosport in 1974 at the age of 39, which is not a record but almost, since Gianni Brera was promoted to editor of the Gazzetta dello Sport in 1949 when he was 30.

Ormezzano was a great conductor, a proponent of original initiatives and unique insights, but like all great musicians blessed with talent, he succeeded better in improvisation, in grasping a brilliant idea, than in the daily routine involved in running a newspaper. A great soloist. Too good and too quick to coach the 'normals'. A bit like what happens in football for coaches: it is difficult for the best to have also been good players. Of course, there are exceptions, think of Ancelotti and Capello, even Inzaghi, but generally the most consistent coaches do not have phenomenal playing careers behind them.

Without going into digressions that would take us too far, it must be said that Ormezzano, even after retirement, never stopped working, also as an essayist (he has written dozens of books) and television pundit for both RAI and Mediaset (we remember him with the Gialapa'Band on 'Mai dire goal').

His great loves, we said. Cycling was his second skin. Rather than the heroic cycling of the post-war period, GPO loved that of the years of Anquetil and Poulidor, of Gimondi and Merkcx, of Moser and Saronni, through to Indurain and Pantani.

Unlike many prestigious invitations of the time, Ormezzano did not cultivate melancholy and nostalgia. He was always projected into the future, lamenting certain delays in cycling linked more to the culture of fatigue and pain, symbols of glorious years but inevitably overtaken by the rapid transformation of society. It was Giampaolo Ormezzano about the eternal debate of who was the best between Fausto Coppi and Eddy Merckx who coined this perfect synthesis: 'Coppi was the greatest, Merckx the strongest...'.

A formidable journalist, Ormezzano. Witty and goliardic. Who of the Maestro, even in his behaviour had little or nothing. Instead, he seemed like a boy, a child curious about life, ready to grasp any novelty that might have come from the latest, less experienced but more in tune with the times.

He was a hoover, who never left a crumb on the carpet of journalism. Like all greats, caught up in ideas and new initiatives, he had no time to envy anyone. Even of Juventus, the omnipresent Lady of Turin, he spoke ill, but with due respect. I was friends with Platini, with Boniperti. With his vitality he could even infect Dino Zoff. His brand (GPO) was, and will forever remain, a guarantee of quality.