On October 27, 1954, during a soccer match between Fiorentina and Pistoiese, a cigar-shaped UFO travelling at high speed stopped over the stadium and abducted the football, refusing to fumble the ball despite the reprimands and whistles from the referee and the angry outcries from the audience that packed the stadium. However, when the public started throwing all kinds of objects, the spacepcraft made a sharp left turn and flied off placing itself out of sight within two seconds; but not before projecting a powerful violet light onto the field. This light had the effect of causing players from both teams to act out the ‘dramma giocoso’ in two acts ‘Il Matrimonio Segreto’ (The Clandestine Marriage) by Domenico Cimarosa. While the public did not seem to appreciate the show much, critics were very favorable, standing out above all of them the enthusiastic review of the ‘Corriere dello Sport’, which praised “the snicker-out-loud funny teamwork of all the players, deserving special mention the performance of midfielder Augusto Magri, one of the surprises of the tournament, whose dazzling ‘coloratura’ bursts endowed this eighteenth-century satire with contemporary reverberations.”
