"It was a great pleasure to see all these great world champions of various disciplines united here at the Quirinal Palace of the President of the Republic. It was right for things to go this way. All sports should be celebrated, because we all make big sacrifices and we have our objectives." Fabio Cannavaro commented like this on the award ceremony, on part of the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano, of the athletes who won a gold medal in a world competition, in the years 2005-2006.
Concerning the presence of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who was invited to the ceremony, he said that "his arrival made us very happy, we don't want to think much about polemics."
In the traditional blue outfit, the 23 Azzurri were photographed and shook the hands of the fans. The Italian Republic now has new knights, in fact Marcello Lippi's 23 selected players were all officially knighted.
