On the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust (Monday 27 January), Parma Calcio will pay tribute to the memory of Renzo Cavallini, an iconic figure in the Club’s history and in the fight against all forms of discrimination. At the event, which will take place at the Ernesto Ceresini Museum at 17:00 CET, a solidarity sticker dedicated to Renzo Cavallina and created in collaboration with ‘Figurine Forever’ will be presented.
The ceremony will be attended by the following: Parma Calcio; the Cavallina family; Emanuele Nanni from Figurine Forever; Giuliana Fornale, president of ANED Emilia-Romagna; Simone Alberici, president of the Emilia-Romagna Regional Committee FIGC-LND; a delegation of young female and male players from the Club’s Youth Sector. This event will represent a moment of deep reflection in order to pass on the values that Cavallini embodied to younger generations, promoting the memory of a courageous and significant life choice against oppression and discrimination.
RENZO CAVALLINA
Renzo Cavallina was born on 9 August 1921 in Villanova (Ferrara). A footballer and later a coach, he first wore the Parma Calcio shirt in the 1940/41 season, playing for the club until 1943, when he was called up for military service. After the signing of the Armistice of Cassibile in September 1943, Cavallina refused to join the army of the Republic of Salò, the German puppet state and fascist rump state that was created during the latter part of World War II. This choice, as painful as it was significant, led to his internment in Stalag III D, a German Army prisoner-of-war camp located in Berlin-Lichterfelde. Amidst suffering and deprivation, he remained there until liberation. After his imprisonment, Cavallina once again played for Parma during the 1945/46 and 1948/49 seasons, spending a year at Mantova in between. He continued his career in Serie C and at Promozione level before moving to Faenza, where he began his coaching career in 1955.