Roberto Donadoni returns to the bench after 5 years away from the pitch: he will find a very different world from the one he left, but in which he can still demonstrate his quality
Spezia went looking for him in the emergency, like Rome with Cincinnato. The dictator was plowing the fields, Roberto Donadoni playing golf. Tomorrow the Immortal AC Milan player returns to the bench after 5 years. Which is a lot: an entire high school cycle, in 5 years they built the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Last bench in China (Shenzen), August 2020. Donadoni comes out of the forest like the famous Japanese and finds a new world, he will see referees drawing squares in the air. Why did they forget it? He’s not old, 5 years younger than Gasp. It’s not scarce. He already coached under Sacchi who asked him to govern the times and distances of the immortal attack. Gullit insisted: “Mister, I want to make the 10”. Arrigo replied: “Stay wide and run. The number 10 is Roberto”.
He and Ancelotti, masters of connections. As coach, he did well in Lucarelli’s top scorer Livorno, brought an almost failed Parma team to Europe, inherited the Italy World Cup (2006). It qualified them for the European Championship, defeated in the quarter-finals only on penalties by a Spain team that would go on to win the tournament and the World Cup. He was good, it wasn’t enough. In the hysterical circus of the Mou and the baby coaches picked up cheaply from the youth teams, as if they were all Guardiola, Roberto’s elegant normality aroused suspicion. In the Bergamo bone reserve and in the thin voice they read the quiet life of a country curate, not inclined to command. They were wrong. They called him Don Adoni. He deserved more. There’s still time. He starts from the bottom of Serie B, like Fantozzi summarized as a lightning rod. Anyone who has seen him dribble knows that he has returned home: to the Gulf of Poets.