The risk – absolutely concrete – was there: Pro Recco water polo, a piece of Italian history to be clear, was one step away from disappearing. The ‘happy ending’ was hoped for and not written. Now, however, it’s black and white. From Pro Recco to Recco Waterpolo and back in less than two months. The multi-award winning and most successful club in the world returns to the old style with a new owner, the Brazilian billionaire Alexandre Behring who purchased the ‘Real Madrid of water polo‘, returning titles, name and European participation to the club. The announcement of Volpi’s resignation came in early July like a bolt from the blue. In a press release Volpi told ai members to consider themselves free to seek new contracts and expressed the desire to focus on territorial educational and recreational activities for young and old. A disengagement “without prejudice to the hope that buyers capable of at least partially taking over Gabriele Volpi’s legacy can come forward as soon as possible”.
A first contact had been made with a Swiss-Genoese consortium at the same time as the process of the new club started by the resigning president Maurizio Felugo who had the task of establishing Recco Waterpolo, managing to convince part of the team, starting with the coach Sukno to stay in Liguria, reduce his salaries and register the team in A1. But already from the first steps of this new company, rumors of an interest from Brazil were insistent until the announcement of the purchase of the Pro Recco company by the Brazilian billionaire Alexandre Behring, thus returning titles, name and European shareholdings to the Biancocelesti.
Pro Recco Pallanuoto – founded in 1913 in Recco, a Ligurian municipality of less than 10 thousand inhabitants between Portofino and Genoa – is the most successful water polo club in the world. In 1953 he won his first championship but in Serie B. The first scudetto arrived in 1959 (he won 36 in addition to 11 Champions Leagues, 17 Italian Cups, 9 European Super Cups, 1 Adriatic League, in addition to the women’s victories 1 Scudetto, 1 Champions League League, 1 European Super Cup). The Gabriele Volpi era, which began in the 2000s after a dark period away from the top of the league, marked a period of great expansion, with investments that led the club to dominate in Europe.
