He wanted the hymn of Mameli Andi Diaz, he said it continuously, he wanted him to sing him on the podium, in honor of a desired and choice homeland.
The Italian athletics that for some years has been the showcase of the best youth is confirmed by the indoor European Championships that close on March 9 in the Netherlands: uncomfortable boys, who study, mix talent, cultures, work and desire to arrive: they are examples Zaynab Dosso25, very fresh gold of 60 meters with Italian record; Mattia Furlani20, silver in the long run; Larissa Iapichino22, gold with 3 cm more than mom Fiona May in the long run too; Matteo Sioli, 19 bronze in the upper, Andrea Dallavale, 25, bronze in triple: A training that is worth the second place in the European medal also counting the absence of 7 carriers Olympic medals between Tokyo and Paris. They are the children of Italy today, who grew up in our families, in our schools, no longer all monocolor.
Andy Diaz, at the EurOindoor of Atletica 2025, with its 29 years, is the veteran of the delegation, but its history is different from the others. When he arrives in Italy, in 2021 he is already a real athlete, a respectable Cuban triple, but with a talent questioned in his house. Qualified to Tokyo Games Andy Diaz, he feels in trap, the rules of his country make him difficult to express what he feels like it, At the Spanish airport of his flight, he moves away not seen by his delegation and does not go up to the flight to Cuba. It is a choice that costs cut bridges behind: from that moment on his country he is a deserter, for eight years he will not be allowed to return. His family, despite having known him as a decision that took place (for security issues in these cases it is better that nobody knows) understood his choice, and supports him.
For the world Andy Diaz from that moment is anyone’s son and has no net, but he wins a name on his head: Fabrizio Donato, The Olympic bronze of London 2012, an athlete of great longevity that still competed at the high level at 40 then became an esteemed coach. It is with this name in mind that Andy arrives in Italy, as a clandestine, knows that at the bottom of his jump this time there will be no sand hole to cushion its fall: he has not seen, neither money nor a place to go, he does not know a word of Italian. In order not to lose his place in line he slept on the sidewalk in front of the immigration office in Rome in the hope of remedying at least one provisional residence permit to cease to be a ghost.
With the help of an acquaintance who translates a message on Instagram to his unsuspecting man of trusted without knowing if he finds an open or closed door, without knowing if that message will fall into the void. Fabrizio Donato is a coach, he is part of the Guardia di Finanza, but does a thing not expected or predictable: he opens that message and tends to the jumper he vaguely remembers the name. It is Diaz himself who told him at Oa Sport in 2024: «He welcomed me to the house, made part of his family’s life. He risked I was a illegal immigrant, many times I asked him who made him do it. He replies that he saw in me a human being in need of help, who did it because he hopes that if one day he needed help one of his daughters someone can tend to his hand ». Another hand tends her the president of Libertas Unicusano of Livorno.
Now Fabrizio Donato is the coach of Andy Diaz. Citizenship arrived on February 23, 2023 after the intervention of the Ministry of the Interior, Matteo planted, “in consideration of the activation of the procedure by the Coni, who reported the athlete for the excellent results achieved in his sports discipline”, just in time to go to grab the Olympic bronze in triple in triple. On February 24, 2024 Andy Diaz was sworn to enter the Sports Group of the Yellow Flames of which he is now part. He has never hidden his ambitions: he tells everyone clear and round that he will never pull back, that he wants to try to win everything. Began on March 8, 2025 with the European Indoor gold and with the best performance of the year set at 17.71with dedication to the mother who now lives in Italy but is on vacation in Cuba and the grandmother, the women of her life. The Italian learned it, in a few years very well, he needed him not only to sing the anthem of Mameli, but to feel at home in the homeland he wanted with all his strength and who dreams of honoring to the world record.
Andy Diaz was born on Christmas day 1995, and if his life was a novel someone would have said that whoever wrote it had too much imagination.
