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There are only four motorcycle riders who in the 21st century have reached MotoGP as champions of the two small categories, whether they were 125cc, 250cc, Moto3 or Moto2. Is about Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Marc Márquez and Álex Márquez. But there is a fifth that would also be on that list if it weren't for a small detail: it never made it to MotoGP.
This is Manuel Poggiali, a pilot from San Marino by birth, and not only from the Federation, who is one of the great talents who have reached the world championship in recent years. The small Poggiali rode 125cc and 250cc, but the head did not accompany him in a time when that of mental health was not as assumed as now.
Poggiali was a 250cc champion in his first year, like Spencer and Pedrosa
There was a time when Poggiali was the pretty boy of all Italy. Despite being from San Marino, and running with its flag, the transalpine country was proud of that pilot who at only 14 and 15 years old had won the Italian local championship twice in a row. Before starting he already came with the vitola of being the new Valentino Rossi.
1999 had to be the year of Poggiali's World Cup debut, the arrival of a budding star to the championship, and it was. But above that it was the year in which Manuel Poggiali was orphaned. His mother had passed away when he was a baby, and his father, who was the mentor who accompanied him to the circuits, died suddenly. I was only 16 years old.
The stick was tremendous, but even so, with that unconsciousness typical of adolescence, Poggiali came out ahead. The small San Marino driver dazzled the fans with a very fluid style and pure talent. It was a spoiler of what we would later see in more detail in Dani Pedrosa. A great talent in a small bottle.
In his first two seasons in 125cc he only managed a podium, but as soon as he changed Aprilia for Gilera the results began to arrive. In 2001, his third year in the world championship, he was proclaimed champion of the small category ahead of Youichi Ui and Toni Elías. By then he shared his first podiums with Pedrosa.
And is that Those 125 cc were nothing like the current Moto3. There were no age limits and a rider was allowed to do his entire career in 125cc. Thus, the true young talents shone by beating the copper against veterans such as Emilio Alzamora, Lucio Cecchinello, Pablo Nieto, Gino Borsoi, Steve Jenkner or Stefano Perugini.
Poggiali wanted to do something very typical of that time: stay to defend his title, and he almost succeeded. He was runner-up in the world in 2002 at only 19 years of Arnaud Vincent. Poggiali had shone so brightly with Gilera that he became a global brand ambassador, a title that he still holds to this day.
But the big boom for Poggiali was to come in 2003. He made the leap to 250 cc with Aprilia and the result was impressive: he was proclaimed world champion in his first season in the intermediate category. Neither Marc Márquez nor Valentino Rossi have succeeded. Only Dani Pedrosa and who knows if Raúl Fernández in this 2021.
Poggiali was at the top, and today he would not have hesitated to get into MotoGP, and also interesting projects would not have been lacking. But, once again, he wanted to defend his title, and that's when the decline began. In 2004 the new sheriff of the category was to be Pedrosa, and Poggiali could only win one race to finish ninth overall.
In Italy, Poggiali suddenly became a losing San Marino rider, and the criticism grew. Rumors about a possible anorexia of the pilot, simply because he was very thin, soared in the country of the boot, and there were even those who dared to take him to the press. Another word was also beginning to be related to Poggiali: depression.
The San Marino wanted to find the same remedy that had solved his problems in the past: go back to Gilera and go down to 125 cc. A risky step in a 250cc champion, and it did not pay off. Poggiali did not make any podiums, and then he returned to the intermediate category with KTM, but also without any success. Then came the bombshell.
Poggiali retired from motorcycling at just 23 years old and mentally shattered. Every crash, every bad result was a slab for a pilot who was getting everything together. When you win everything goes well, when you lose the supports that were fixed for him they were no longer there. Especially one, his father's.
Another was that of Gilera, who convinced him to return in 2008 in 250cc, but he did not even finish the season. He retired permanently, for the second time, at the age of 25. The new Valentino Rossi had become the new broken toy in the World Championship, a rider who was already afraid to even ride a motorcycle because every fall was synonymous with injury. Fragile body, fragile mind.
But Poggiali did not fall. His stage on motorcycles is over but he has been able to rebuild his life and at 38 he is once again an active part of the world championship. He has participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans recently on a Ducati Panigale R and acts as an advisor in the Gresini Racing structure, which is still present in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP.
In addition, he has also been able to redirect his desire to compete to another sport. Has played professionally to futsal, becoming international for San Marino and making a very worthy career with his team, Tre Fiori, with whom he has even played the futsal Champions League. A talent lost for motorcycles, a person won for the world.
