Every year the Rotary Club of Reventino delivers a prestigious Prize for Arts and Professions named after "Filippo Larussa". A tradition that has been renewed since 1996 and which for 2019 has indicated a prominent personality linked to Calabria and the world of football. It is about Corrado ferlaino, former president of the football team of the Napoli, engineer and building contractor, with father born in Calabria to Conflenti.
The Award aims to annually identify a personality born or active in the territory of the Rotary Club of Reventino. A personality who has distinguished himself, putting at the service of the community and his work i cultural and social values historical, humanistic, literary, but also scientific, technical or artistic. Achieving such results that fill the heart with pride and can be a stimulus for the community and especially for young people. This year the plate will be delivered to the engineer Corrado Ferlaino, a man of considerable depth who has dedicated most of his life to work and sport.
A virtual bridge for the award ceremony
The Prize, sponsored by Italiani.it Foundation, will be delivered on Friday 26 June, at 17:00, with a virtual bridge that will connect the boardroom of Conflenti at the Park Hotel Miglio d'Oro in Herculaneum. All through the Zoom internet platform which will digitally connect all participants in digital mode.
The awards ceremony will open with a moment of honor at the flags and greetings from the presidents of the Rotary Club of Reventino need Herculaneum Centennial, respectively Antonio Giacobbe and Salvatore Cilento. There will therefore be an intervention by the Mayor of Conflenti Seraphim Paula. The word will pass to Paola Stranges, Chairman of the Italiani.it Foundation, which for years has been proudly working on the ambitious project of creating, piece by piece, the network of Italians in the world. A network of people belonging to Italy by birth, by origin or by love, to tell and promote the beautiful country. Immediately after, the panel will open "When football makes history”, Moderated by the journalist Sarah Incamicia. We will then move on to the interventions. The first to speak will be the entrepreneur and former president of Calcio Napoli Corrado ferlaino. The panel will be enriched with the participation of the former football player Massimo Palanca and the sports journalist Sante Roperto. Finally, we will move on to the award ceremony of the “Filippo Larussa” Arts and Professions Award to Corrado Ferlaino. The conclusions will be entrusted to Raffaele DiLeo, assistant governor of Rotary's District 2100.
Ferlaino, a life between business and football
Who is Corrado Ferlaino and what binds him to Calabria? His father Modesto was from Conflenti, a delightful village in the Reventino. Nephew of the magistrate Francesco Ferlaino, killed by the 'Ndrangheta in 1975.
Corrado carries with him a strong bond with this land even though he was born in Naples on May 18, 1931 from a Milanese mother. Graduated from Bari in Civil engineering, follows in the footsteps of his father (also an engineer) in the construction company, a tradition of Ferlaino family of Conflenti. The young Corrado built his first residences in Vomero and Arenella Alta and from there to the Centro Direzionale in Naples, and then in many residential areas of Italy. He is a man of a thousand facets and abilities and soon holds positions in the administrations of important Italian public and private companies. Today all its activities are managed by five children. But it is that famous 18 January 1969 that Corrado Ferlaino gets the attention of the news and ends up on the front pages of all the newspapers. It is the day he is elected president of Napoli, succeeding the Lauro family for years at the top of the football club. A position that Ferlaino held until the 2000s.
From football to the Hale of Fame Award
With him, Napoli will win 2 league titles in the Maradona era (in 1987 and 1990), but not only that, also the Coppa Italia, the Uefa Cup and the Italian Super Cup.
He also holds the position of Federal Councilor of the FGCI, from which he receives the coveted Award Hall of Fame, and then as Vice President of the Technical Center of Coverciano. But in addition to football, he is passionate about motoring: in 1963 he won the GT Drivers' Championship with Ferrari. In 2019 in Naples he won the Scugnizzo Award for Sport. A life understood between business, football, a passion for sports cars and works of art. His roots are in Conflenti, where his father was born. A small town in Calabria located at the foot of Mount Reventino, 540 m above sea level and surrounded by luxuriant woods. A village with a wonderful history and an intense cultural life that animates the heart of the mountain massif that lies there legend wants to be inhabited by fairies.
Photo Wikipedia and Corrado Ferlaino Facebook page
