After hundreds of goals and 500 games played, the former striker opens his album of memories. “I grew up playing at the seaside, that’s how I learned. In Naples I shared the dressing room with champions like Cavani and Hamsik, thanks to Lippi I arrived in the national team. Football is fun, at all levels: you have to attack, the sooner you get to the other side, the sooner you score goals”
Giuseppe Mascara started dribbling by the sea. Every summer, with a group of friends, he left Comiso and reached Marina di Ragusa for the usual beach soccer tournament: “We challenged anyone, every city had its own team. Stop, volley, dribbling. I learned to be decisive on that beach”. As a child he had two dreams: to debut in the Champions League and to wear the national team shirt. “I have shown that even if you grow up in a small village in Sicily, with few possibilities but many dreams, you can reach the top.” The former Catania striker has not missed anything in his twenty-year career: over 500 games played and hundreds of goals scored. As a coach, however, he chose to start again with the amateurs. His new adventure is at Paternò: “Among the professionals everything is simpler, you just have to think about work. In the lower categories however there are always problems to solve: the players work, they study. You learn to listen to them, to be close to them when needed. You almost become a psychologist. And then the apprenticeship has never scared me.”
What situation did you find at Paternò?
“The team is young and has important values, but it must be supported. In Group I of Serie D we are in the playout zone. This is a difficult championship, no one gives you anything. We are not hiding, the club is going through a complicated moment. I am the fourth manager in three months. They asked me to help them and I accepted.”
What did you ask the management?
“To have carte blanche in the reconstruction of the group. I need 4-5 new additions. I was clear with the club: I’ll put my best foot forward, but we need to work well.”
At the end of last season he led Novara for four games. It was his first pro coaching adventure.
“I worked in Promotion, Eccellenza, Serie D. Nothing scares me anymore. In Novara it was a fantastic experience, albeit very short. I was coaching the Primavera, the club needed a trained coach who could finish the championship without mistakes. So they chose me.”
What coach is Mascara?
“Certainly not a scientist. Football is fun. You have to attack and make yourself dangerous. Bring the ball into the opponent’s half of the field. The sooner you get to the other side, the sooner you score a goal. More than ball possession and horizontal passes.”
That’s why he uses the 4-3-3.
“I worked with Zeman at Salernitana and Pasquale Marino at Catania, it couldn’t be otherwise. When you play for so many years in that way the tactical system gets into your head. Among amateurs, however, there are not only schemes and training sessions. The players have problems at work, in the family. They live football as a passion, life is something else. I played for twenty years, I immediately understand if there is something wrong with one of my boys.”
His career began on the beach.
“I grew up 10 minutes from the sea. I spent the summer playing on the beach from morning until sunset. I improved my technique by sinking my feet into the sand.”
Born in Caltagirone, raised in Comiso. He wore the Palermo shirt, then moved to Catania. Sicily is in its DNA.
“It’s all Luciano Gaucci’s fault (laughs, ed). He already wanted me when I was at Avellino in C in 2000. Three years later I joined him at Catania and in 2004 he also called me to Perugia. A family of sound principles, but very particular. If you made a mistake, you risked sending the whole team into retreat for 20 days.”
Is it true that the president gave you a bonus for every goal you scored?
“A handshake was enough between us, there was no need to have a written agreement.”
Who was the nicest in that Perugia?
“Sedivec did one a day, you had to be very careful. But when he went on the pitch it was a spectacle.”
You also had Saadi Gaddafi with you.
“A very humble person. He liked being in a group, listening. But he never came to training.”
“He said he was always busy with another job. We didn’t interfere.”
He returned to Catania in 2005. He played many derbies against Palermo, the best feeling?
“Representing the city. You know you can’t make mistakes. Seeing 6,000 people cheering outside the sports center on Thursday makes you understand what that match means to the people.”
At Palermo, on 1 March 2009 he scored a historic goal from midfield.
“We won 4-0 at Barbera. Scoring like that, in that stadium and during the derby, was wonderful. It was an instinctive play, you can’t prepare that shot. I saw Amelia outside the posts and I tried. It went well for me.”
You were also on the pitch two years earlier in the Massimino derby, when inspector Filippo Raciti lost his life during clashes between fans.
“When a person dies because of a football match we are all defeated.”
After Catania, Napoli was the other fundamental stop on his journey.
“I arrived with Mazzarri in 2010. I played in the Champions League against Villarreal and Bayern Munich. I shared the dressing room with a group of champions: from Cavani and Hamsik to Cannavaro, Quagliarella, Lavezzi”.
Zuniga said that spending an evening with Pocho meant risking ending up in a mental hospital or prison. He confirms?
“You said it very well (laughs, ed). Lavezzi was crazy, he entertained everyone and always had a joke ready.”
In the summer of 2009, the then coach Lippi called her to the national team.
“He sent me onto the field in a friendly match against Northern Ireland. Before then no Catania player had ever worn the blue shirt.”
She has four children, all footballers. Will we see more Mascaras in Serie A soon?
“They have always played football. It was their choice, I never forced them. They must have passion and have fun, without thinking about the surname they bear.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED