In the early 2000s there was a small team from Verona that wrote a page in the history of Serie A: Chievo, 4500 inhabitants and for years the happy island of Italian football. World champions such as Barone and Perrotta have passed there, Corradi, Corini and many others have exploded in that team. Trainer. Gigi Delneri. The Chievo miracle – 20 years at high levels before bankruptcy – it was also made possible thanks to the behind-the-scenes work of Giovanni Sartori. The current manager of the Bologna technical area managed the market far and wide: he bought, sold, revolutionized and in each market session at least 10 players brought them home.
DIDIER IN THE VIEWFINDER – In 2002 to have stolen his eye was a striker who played in France, in Guingamp. His name was Didier Drogba. Little more than an unknown at the time: 3 goals in 11 games in Ligue 1 at the age of 24; not large numbers, but Sartori had seen potential in that boy. And she wasn’t wrong. He went to see him twice in France at the Stade municipal de Roudourou, and he was even more convinced to take him. A discussion with president Campedelli before contacting Guingamp: ‘We really like that Ivorian striker, Drogba. We would like to treat it, how much does it cost?”.
SKIP ALL – The response of the French comes loud and clear: for less than 1 million euros it doesn’t move. Today it makes you smile thinking about what Didier did in football, but no one could predict such a career at the time. “1 million euros…Sartori thought again, looking for a way to try and convince the president to come up with that figure. High, very high for a small club like the yellow and blue one. Too high, despite the player’s potential. So Drogba jumped at Chievo for that million, but Sartori has the merit of having had the right intuition. And Didier? The following year he will go to Marseille, the rest is history.