Many have heard on the radio or television “let’s take the line from the Castellani stadium in Empoli ..” without knowing who the person after whom the Tuscan city named the stadium was. Around Italy there are sports facilities that with their name want to remember stories and characters that must not be forgotten.

What happened many years ago is still fresh in mind, not only in Empoli. The name Carlo Castellani is indelible, the project of this solidarity sticker has two purposes: to pay homage to those who have never forgotten it, to restore strength to the historical memory of those who still do not know the life and tragedy of this champion.

The Celebrative Sticker #36 is Carlo Castellani, born in Montelupo Fiorentino on January 15, 1909, died in Gusen on August 11, 1944. In between, a lot of football played, many goals scored with his Empoli, the Tuscan club’s absolute best scorer for over 70 years . The record will be surpassed only by Francesco “Ciccio” Tavano in 2011.

In the dark years of the war and the regime, although his family is anti-fascist, Carlo doesn’t get involved in politics. On the night of 8 March 1944, the carabinieri and the hierarch knock on the door of the Castellani house to take away his father David, who however is ill. Carlo decides to take his place, without resisting for fear of retaliation against his family.

Carlo is taken to Florence. From platform 6 of the Santa Maria Novella station he is loaded onto a train for Germany, crammed with hundreds of other deportees and deportees, some will die along the way, he arrives days later at the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Carlo Castellani, physically and mentally exhausted, died on 11 August 1944.

This solidarity stickers was made possible thanks to the collaboration with Aned – National Association of Former Deportees in Nazi Camps, in particular the sections of Empoli, Florence and Bologna. It is sponsored by the Municipality of Empoli and the Municipality of Montelupo Fiorentino and is created in collaboration with the Empoli Football Club which allowed the official logo of the white-blue club to be inserted.

Special thanks to Franco Castellani, Carlo’s son, for sharing memories, letters, photos. Of these photos, only a few but significant ones have given life to a folder that acts as a splendid frame for a figurine that will remain over time. To never forget.

The Celebrative Sticker #36 solidarity sticker will be presented on Friday 3 March 2023, at 4.30 pm in the Press Room of Empoli FC at the Carlo Castellani Stadium.

TOGETHER for ANED!

With the proceeds of this new solidarity sticker + folder, it will be possible to support the activities of ANED the National Association Ex Deported in the nazi camps (http://www.deportati.it/?lang=en); we strongly feel the need to keep the memory of what happened alive and daily, because it should never happen again. 150 of the numbered version and 50 of the unnumbered version were donated to Aned Empoli as our support to this important reality, for a total value of 1,000 euros

We want to remember Vittorio Staccione both for the great man, persecuted, that he was, and for the great footballer, as the facts say, that he was.

CARLO CASTELLANI
Celebrative Sticker #36 – Sticker + Folder
Limited and numbered edition 300 copies

Cost € 7.00

+ postage costs (for Italy € 5.00, Europe € 8.00)

How to pay:

• Bank transfer: 
  Bank:Emil Banca – Credito Cooperativo 
  Branch:Borgo Panigale, Bologna Italia 
  IBAN:IT82 Y070 7202 4000 0000 0427 519 
  BIC:ICRAITRRTS0 
  For purchases by bank transfer, please always follow an email to figurineforever@gmail.com
• Paypal to the address only figurineforever@gmail.com, with Paypal the price per card is € 1.00 more
• IN THE CAUSAL ALWAYS INSERT: WHICH CARD YOU WANT TO BUY AND YOUR ADDRESS FOR SHIPMENT, PLEASE BEFORE TO PAY ALWAYS POSTAGE COSTS FROM ITALY TO YOUR COUNTRY

AVAILABLE NOW! (copies available 115/300)

the folders of the solidarity stickers are numbered, the number you receive is random. The choice of the specific number is a pre-sale service only and only for the members of Figurine Forever

An unnumbered version was also printed, mainly used for distribution to institutions, schools, cultural and social realities as a method to raise awareness and always keep historical memory alive.

Great news at Figurine Forever, the FanForever Card series changes its name to broaden its horizons, after 22 releases dedicated to the world of music and cinema, the new Forever Cards will be the perfect container for our solidarity initiatives. We will continue to involve artists from the world of entertainment but we will also talk about stories, realities, men and women who must be remembered.

The first of these is in memory of Vittorio Bellenghi, an exciting and heartfelt continuation of what has already been done in the Celebrative Sticker series, after the two solidarity stickers in memory of Bruno Neri. Vittorio and Bruno, sportsmen and partisans, died together in July 1944, in a firefight with the occupying German forces. We like to think that in moments of tranquillity, in addition to talking about their beautiful Faenza, they also found themselves telling stories of sports, football and basketball, waiting to have to pick up the gun again.

Vittorio Bellenghi, born on 7 March 1913 in Faenza, unmarried, accountant under army officer, basketball player, enrolled at the University of Bologna, Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Radio Zella activist and partisan, died in war at just 31 years old .

After the war, Faenza will have an important history in basketball, especially in women’s basketball. Somehow we can define the players of the 30s as pioneers. There is not much information that we have managed to gather about the sporting history of Vittorio Bellenghi or that of pre-war Faenza basketball. Our hope is that this solidarity card is a means not only to help remember a patriot but also a sporting history, “of the province”, with the hope that this article of ours can also be integrated later with other news.

The photo in the postcard of Vittorio with his teammates dates back to the 1934/35 season, recovered thanks to the availability of the Municipality of Faenza.

The solidarity (Fan) Forever Card #23 is made in collaboration with the MEI (Meeting Independent Labels) and will be presented at the Museum of the Risorgimento in Faenza, Thursday 1 December 2022, in the presence of the city authorities.

FOR ANPI!

The Vittorio Bellenghi solidarity card is intended to recall a personal, sporting and partisan story of a young basketball player who decided to fight for freedom. For this reason the support is aimed at ANPI (National Association of Partisans of Italy), in memory of the fallen and the values ​​of Resistance and Peace.

VITTORIO BELLENGHI
(Fan) Forever Card #23 – Card + Postcard
Limited and numbered edition 99 copies

Cost € 5.00

+ postage costs (for Italy € 5.00, Europe € 8.00)

How to pay:

• Bank transfer: 
  Bank:Emil Banca – Credito Cooperativo 
  Branch:Borgo Panigale, Bologna Italia 
  IBAN:IT82 Y070 7202 4000 0000 0427 519 
  BIC:ICRAITRRTS0 
  For purchases by bank transfer, please always follow an email to figurineforever@gmail.com
• Paypal to the address only figurineforever@gmail.com, with Paypal the price per card is € 1.00 more
• IN THE CAUSAL ALWAYS INSERT: WHICH CARD YOU WANT TO BUY AND YOUR ADDRESS FOR SHIPMENT, PLEASE BEFORE TO PAY ALWAYS POSTAGE COSTS FROM ITALY TO YOUR COUNTRY

AVAILABLE NOW! (copies available 15/99)

the postcards of the solidarity cards are numbered, the number you receive is random. The choice of the specific number is a pre-sale service only and only for the members of Figurine Forever

21 free copies were also printed, they do not have a consecutive number and were distributed to the Municipality of Faenza, ANPI, MEI (Meeting Etichette Indipendenti)
2 copies to the Figurine Forever Association, as archive.

Bruno Neri Forever! Exactly one year ago we presented the Celebrative Sticker # 10 dedicated to the partisan footballer, the initiative met with incredible enthusiasm, so much so that the 99 copies of the solidarity sticker sold out in a very short time.

From many sides they asked us for a reprint, but our solidarity stickers do not provide for it, so we made an appointment for 2022. The footballer, who died partisan on 10 July 1944, during a firefight with the Nazis, made famous by a famous photograph that he portrays him at the Florence Stadium, in 1931, while he does not pay homage to the fascist hierarchs.

If the first sticker was a “what if”, imagining Neri as the footballer of the 1938 world champion national team, this time we have traveled a good part of his sporting life, celebrating not only the man but also his city, Faenza, which gave him entitled the stadium and a plaque where he lived, which we decided to add to the folder.

For these reasons the stickers of Bruno Neri are:
. in his last season, as a player at Faenza, printed in 99 copies
. with the Fiorentina shirt in the 1931/32 season, printed in 50 copies
. with the FC Torino shirt in the 1938/39 season, printed in 50 copies, where the player from Romagna scores his only goal with the grenade shirt and it is also the season before the outbreak of the Second World War.

In the folder there is also a large image with the Torino shirt. Some photos are the same as the first solidarity sticker, unfortunately there is very little photographic material on Bruno Neri, but the colors of his shirts are updated, especially that of Fiorentina where he does not make the fascist salute. In the Celebrative Sticker # 10 he wore the blue shirt, in this the most real purple shirt, the same colors of that day.

Finally, we also wanted to celebrate the other Neri of Faenza, Giacomo, six years younger than Bruno, a footballer for Juventus, Genoa and Inter and also for the national team. The photo shows them together, Neri I and Neri II, two very different stories but both of which have brought the white and blue colors of their city to their hearts.

We recently remembered Vittorio Staccione, a footballer deported and killed in Mauthausen, Bruno Neri’s teammate in Florence, both players of Turin but at different times. The “legend” tells that they were friends, they certainly shared the same negative sentiment towards ideology and even more so about fascist practices.

BRUNO NERI FOR THE “ADOTTA CON LA FIGURINA” PROJECT!

The entire proceeds from the sale of this Celebrative Sticker will be used to support the “Adotta con la Figurina – Sticker raising for Solidarity” project where our association annually engages in different solidarity projects, in Madagascar, Bosnia, Argentina and Italy.

BRUNO NERI
Celebrative Sticker # 23 – Sticker + Folder
Limited edition 199 copies numbered
Faenza variant, 99 copies
Fiorentina variant, 50 copies
FC Torino variant, 50 copies
(the sequence between the 3 different stickers with respect to the numbering of the folders is random, they are in no particular order)

Cost € 6.00

+ postage costs (for Italy € 5.00, Europe € 8.00)

How to pay:

• Bank transfer: 
  Bank:Emil Banca – Credito Cooperativo 
  Branch:Borgo Panigale, Bologna Italia 
  IBAN:IT82 Y070 7202 4000 0000 0427 519 
  BIC:ICRAITRRTS0 
  For purchases by bank transfer, please always follow an email to figurineforever@gmail.com
• Paypal to the address only figurineforever@gmail.com, with Paypal the price per card is € 1.00 more
• IN THE CAUSAL ALWAYS INSERT: WHICH CARD YOU WANT TO BUY AND YOUR ADDRESS FOR SHIPMENT, PLEASE BEFORE TO PAY ALWAYS POSTAGE COSTS FROM ITALY TO YOUR COUNTRY

AVAILABLE NOW! (copies available 71/199)

the folders of the solidarity stickers are numbered, the number you receive is random. The choice of the specific number is a pre-sale service only and only for the members of Figurine Forever

10 free copies have also been printed, they do not have the consecutive number. These copies were distributed as follows: 2 copies to Neri family, 1 copy to Municipality of Faenza, 1 copy to Giordano Sangiorgi (MEI), 1 copy to ANPI Faenza, 1 copy to Faenza Calcio, 1 copy to Grande Torino Museum, 1 copy to Museum of Fiorentina, 2 copies to Figurine Forever Association

Vittorio Staccione Forever! So that the memory of Vittorio, of his history, of all the stories related to the political and racial persecutions of fascism and the consequent, for many, deportation to Nazi concentration camps, may never be forgotten, may never be “a history of other times” , to be placed in the drawer.

We are happy and proud to announce the Celebrative Sticker # 20 solidarity sticker, dedicated to Vittorio Staccione. The sporting and human history of the turin footballer goes hand in hand with the darkest twenty years in Italy.

The refusal to bow to Mussolini’s regime undoubtedly made Vittorio’s career as a footballer very complicated; despite the intimidation and even the repeated physical violence suffered by the fascist squads, Staccione on the playing field was able to leave his mark, both in his beloved Torino FC, where he grew up, and later in Cremonese, Fiorentina and Cosenza.

Intense, bitter story, more than others worthy of becoming a film, which is well told in Francesco Veltri’s book “Il mediano di Mauthausen” (Diarkos editions, 2019), thanks also to the collaboration with Federico Molinario, Vittorio’s nephew. It is above all thanks to Federico and the Grande Torino Museum that put us in contact if we were able to carry out this project; thanks also to the Panathlon Club of Cremona and to the Fiorentina Museum if the memory of Staccione is still alive.

Vittorio Staccione, on 12 March 1944, was arrested by the police in Turin and handed over to the SS to be deported to concentration camps, he died in Mauthausen on 16 March 1945; his brother Francesco, deported to the same concentration camp, will follow him nine days later.

For the solidarity sticler, we assumed that history had gone differently, that Italy was a better country in those years and that therefore Vittorio Staccione, solely for his proven football skills, could make his debut and become a protagonist also in the national team. He too triumphed at the International Tournament held between 1927 and 1930, forerunner of that winning Italy of coach Pozzo who will bring the Azzurri to the throne of the world twice in the following 8 years.

TOGETHER for ANED!

With the proceeds of this new solidarity sticker + folder, it will be possible to support the activities of ANED the National Association Ex Deported in the nazi camps (http://www.deportati.it/?lang=en); we strongly feel the need to keep the memory of what happened alive and daily, because it should never happen again. At the same time, 60 copies will be donated to the Grande Torino Museum for sale at their in-house shop. We want to remember Vittorio Staccione both for the great man, persecuted, that he was, and for the great footballer, as the facts say, that he was.

VITTORIO STACCIONE
FanForever Card #20 – Sticker + Folder
Limited and numbered edition 245 copies

Cost € 7.00

+ postage costs (for Italy € 5.00, Europe € 8.00)

How to pay:

• Bank transfer: 
  Bank:Emil Banca – Credito Cooperativo 
  Branch:Borgo Panigale, Bologna Italia 
  IBAN:IT82 Y070 7202 4000 0000 0427 519 
  BIC:ICRAITRRTS0 
  For purchases by bank transfer, please always follow an email to figurineforever@gmail.com
• Paypal to the address only figurineforever@gmail.com, with Paypal the price per card is € 1.00 more
• IN THE CAUSAL ALWAYS INSERT: WHICH CARD YOU WANT TO BUY AND YOUR ADDRESS FOR SHIPMENT, PLEASE BEFORE TO PAY ALWAYS POSTAGE COSTS FROM ITALY TO YOUR COUNTRY

AVAILABLE NOW! (copies available 34/245)

the folders of the solidarity stickers are numbered, the number you receive is random. The choice of the specific number is a pre-sale service only and only for the members of Figurine Forever

15 free copies have also been printed, they do not have the consecutive number. The 15 copies were distributed as follows: 5 copies to the Staccione family, 1 copy to journalist Francesco Veltri, 1 copy al to Grande Torino Museum, 1 copy to Fiorentina Museum, 1 copy to Panathlon Club of Cremona, 1 copy to ANED Milano, 1 copy to ANED Bologna, 1 copy to Aned Torino, 1 copy to ex footballer Eraldo Pecci, 2 copies to Figurine Forever Association

The choice to print 245 copies is not accidental, that final “45” is a clear reference to when man’s madness and cruelty put an end to the life of an Italian sports champion

Who was Bruno Neri? Bruno Neri was an excellent footballer, a man of great values, a patriot. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, his sporting career starts from his hometown Faenza and continues to the big clubs, Fiorentina for 7 years, Torino for 3 years with an interlude to Lucchese that in 1936 / 37 played in Serie A. The period in Tuscany is also remembered for the three appearances in the national team.

Bruno Neri is famous for a photo from 1931, shown in our folder, on the occasion of the inauguration of the new stadium in Florence he is the only footballer not to give the Roman salute in front of the fascist hierarchs. Neri was not particularly involved in politics, perhaps he wasn’t even too interested, but his passion for art and poetry could have little to do with an authoritarian regime.

His proximity to anti-fascist circles led him to participate in the partisan struggle, as deputy commander of the Ravenna Brigade, his passion for football was also able to resist the pains and horrors of war, so much so that Neri took part in the Alta Italia championship of 1944 with the shirt of “his” Faenza.

Bruno Neri died on 10 July 1944, during a fire fight with the Nazis, near the Hermitage of Gamogna in the Apennines. We like to repeat that our solidarity stickers are not only intended to collect funds but also to remember, to raise awareness, to support historical memory as in this case.

At the same time we like to imagine, create alternative stories, for this reason we have created the sticker of Bruno Neri as a football player for the national team at the 1938 World Cup in France, won by the “Azzurri”. The blue shirt you see in the photo is really his and is kept at the Grande Torino Museum.

BRUNO NERI FOR THE “ADOTTA CON LA FIGURINA” PROJECT!

The entire proceeds from the sale of this Celebrative Sticker will be used to support the “Adotta con la Figurina – Sticker raising for Solidarity” project where our association annually engages in different solidarity projects, in Madagascar, Bosnia, Argentina and Italy.

BRUNO NERI
Celebrative Sticker # 10 – Sticker + Folder

First Edition
limited and numbered 99 copies
from 1 to 99
SOLD OUT

Second Edition
limited and numbered 51 copies
from 100 to 150 – 25th april 2023

Cost € 7.00

+ postage costs (for Italy € 5.00, Europe € 10.00)

How to pay:

• Bank transfer: 
  Bank:Emil Banca – Credito Cooperativo 
  Branch:Borgo Panigale, Bologna Italia 
  IBAN:IT82 Y070 7202 4000 0000 0427 519 
  BIC:ICRAITRRTS0 
  For purchases by bank transfer, please always follow an email to figurineforever@gmail.com
• Paypal to the address only figurineforever@gmail.com, with Paypal the price per card is € 1.00 more
• IN THE CAUSAL ALWAYS INSERT: WHICH CARD YOU WANT TO BUY AND YOUR ADDRESS FOR SHIPMENT, PLEASE BEFORE TO PAY ALWAYS POSTAGE COSTS FROM ITALY TO YOUR COUNTRY

COMING SOON 2nd EDITION
(1st edt limited & numbered edition 1-99 SOLD OUT)
(2nd edt limited & numbered edition 100-150, available april 2023)

The folders of the solidarity stickers are numbered, the number you receive is random. The choice of the specific number is a pre-sale service only and only for the members of Figurine Forever

10 free copies have also been printed, were distributed as follows: 1 copy to Neri family, 1 copy to Municipality of Faenza, 1 copy to Giordano Sangiorgi (MEI), 1 copy to ANPI Faenza, 1 copy to ANPI Bologna/Montesole Marzabotto, 1 copy to Radio Frequenza Appennino, 1 copy to Giglio Amico Onlus, 1 copy to Grande Torino Museum, 2 copies to Figurine Forever Association