LIVORNO. What does the Moroccan Olympic national team (bronze at the Olympics) have to do with Livorno basketball? The strange riddle of midsummer does not seem to be easy to solve. Help, however, may come in the form of a famous last name: Richardson. It won’t take long for fans to pull the boundless talent from the deepest recesses of their memory. Michael Ray Richardsonthe myth “Sugar” who cheered for Livorno from 1992 to 1994 and then again for a part of the 1999/00 season when his identity card now shows 45 years old!
We know everything about “Sugar”: his fascinating career as a champion ofNBAhit by cocaine addiction, then the arrival of Virtus Bologna in 1988, Livorno, the parenthesis of Forli and the closing ad Antibes. Here’s the hook: Antibes, the French Riviera is where “Sugar” in the early years of the new Millennium met a Franco-Moroccan woman who soon became his wife and who in January 2002 in Nice makes him Amir’s father. Amir Richardson.
The riddle is about to be solved. Amir is not familiar with the ball he likes football, which is understood as football. He started playing for Nice, then moved to Le Havre. He is the classic playmaker and also has no foot: an extra talent and unpredictability for this boy who at the age of 19 made his debut in Ligue 2 (the French B). Richardson Jr knows how to do it and in 2021 he moved to Remis playing in the highest transalpine series where he also scored three goals. Yes, but where is the last connection to the Olympics? Easy. Amir participated in the event in Paris with the Moroccan national team. And during the 3-0 game against Iraq on July 30, he was even happy to score the goal that gave the ‘Lions’ the lead.
And to think that Sugar’s son – born in France to an American father and a Moroccan mother – has the possibility of being called up by the Blues and the US national team. He, however (after wearing the France Under 20 shirt six times) chose to follow his mother’s blood.
The story, however, is just beginning and not only because of the young age of the child. Richardson, in fact, boasts many admirers across Europe and the Olympics is an important show for him. And in the last hours (after joining the Rome) the player will be very close to Fiorentinaready to spend 10 million euros to get the son of “Sugar”. The number is high, but it seems to be the only way the Giallorossi can use to beat the competition from Ajax and Everton who also see this left-footed midfielder with the stigmata of the champion in his DNA.
Ask father Michael Ray, but above all who saw him play from New York to Golden State, from Bologna to Forlì, who passed Livorno. The two disciplines – football and basketball – are not comparable and neither is the rate of the father and son kissing class. Michael Ray has world-class talent. Amir at least continental level. It is certainly hopeful that in the soul of the young Franco-Moroccan resides the genius of his father and not his indifference.