The taboo remains. Palmeiras lost against Chelsea (2-1) and continues without a World Cup, although the São Paulo club tries to make its triumph in the 1951 Rio Cup official. In Abu Dhabi, among the albiverde mass there was no lack of presence of the most beloved couple of ‘torcedores’: Silvia Grecco and her blind son Nickolas14 years old, two endearing and unique figures, who move an entire country and who obtained the international recognition they deserved. In 2019, Silvia won the FIFA Fan Award.
His is a story of overcoming, of breaking barriers and limits and of love for football. Silvia’s voice is the eyes of her son in all Palmeiras games. She is the mother turned into the narrator of a single listener to transmit, with the background heat of the stands, everything that happens on the pitch. They were discovered in 2018 in the middle of the TV Globo narration of a classic Palmeiras-Corinthians, at the Allianz Parque stadium, in Sao Paulo, when the journalist in charge of making the wireless microphone came across the unusual scene.
And the intrahistory is goosebumps. Nickollas was born five months premature, with no time for the retinas to form. He weighed 500 grams. He spent his first four months fighting for his very existence in a hospital incubator.. She entered the adoption line. One by one, up to twelve families, declined the possibility of hosting him. “I know what the reason is. It was written that it had to be my son & rdquor ;, says Silvia, that she already had a biological daughter and wanted to expand the family.
Sylvia and her son Nickollas Grecco, protagonists of a moving story that earned them the FIFA Fan Award in 2019?pic.twitter.com/G6c1o8bcJF
– FIFA.com in Spanish (@fifacom_es) February 8, 2022
Nickollas was the new son of a family of ‘torcedores’ from Palmeiras. Shortly thereafter, the little boy was diagnosed with mild autism. “In the stadium, during the games, he is truly happy & rdquor ;, assures his mother.
In the great events of the current golden age of Palmeiras there has always been the presence of the Grecco. The São Paulo club invited them to the last two finals of the Libertadores: in January 2021, at the Maracaná against Santos (almost without an audience due to the Covid-19 pandemic), and in November, in Montevideo, against Flamengo. They vibrated with the two titles.
FIFA wanted them to be in Qatar, in February 2021, at the Club World Cup, where Palmeiras, who had been continental champion a week ago, fell in the semifinals against Tigres, from Mexico. And, now, they were in the United Arab Emirates, where the VAR did not forgive a few hands from the central defender Luan at a shot by Azpilicueta. Four minutes after the extension expired, the World Cup dream vanishedwhich obsesses the albiverdes so much and at which their rivals laugh so much.
Nickollas, through social networks, showed his full confidence in coach Abel Ferreira and applauded his team’s dedication. The Verdao squad loves him. In November, Deyverson was at his & mldr’s birthday, and 26 days later would score the title goal of the club’s third Libertadores. Despite the setback with Chelsea, Nickollas’s optimism is more than justified, because Verdao is still the favorite to win all the titles at stake in 2022.
