Antonio Nocerino interview: “Me, Milan, Ibra, Palermo, Padre Pio”

“It was the hand of Padre Pio.” The title of the film on the career of Antonio Nocerino, a midfielder who played for strikers and playmakers throughout Italy, recalls that of Paolo Sorrentino. “At the age of seven you usually write a little letter to Santa Claus, but I wrote to Padre Pio.”

“My mother often took me to Lourdes. One day I asked her if Padre Pio would make me become a footballer, she replied to write it on a piece of paper. ‘You pray and insist’. The rest is history.”

Has your faith never abandoned you?

“Never. My son is called Francesco in honor of Francesco Forgione, Padre Pio. I went dozens of times to Pietrelcina, his city. During my career I often wore the number 23, the day he died. And when Juve called me to Serie A I was in San Giovanni Rotondo, at the sanctuary. It was the summer of 2007. My sporting life is a round of coincidences.”

If you think about football what comes to mind?

“The endless games on the street. I grew up in Naples, in the Pallonetto district of Santa Lucia, a place where you quickly learn to survive. I was a lively, alert child. My mother was a housewife, my father was a railway worker. At home we didn’t eat often. Every now and then I helped my grandfather deliver chickens door to door, he had a chicken shop. They taught me to be happy with little.”

How did Juventus notice it?

“By chance. I was 13 years old, my father coached me. A scout was in Agnano to watch another boy and discovered me. I was chubby, they called me ‘panzerotto’, but he immediately asked who I was. The good thing is that before the last audition I had back pain and risked not playing. My father convinced me to do it: I scored two goals in half an hour”.

Was leaving Naples difficult?

“The day before leaving for Turin, my mother closed the door and hid the keys. I told her jokingly that I would go down from the balcony. I cried every evening, it was foggy and they treated us from the South badly, but I didn’t give up an inch. At Juve I learned discipline and seriousness.”

And did these concepts help you?

“They trained me. At 18, Avellino called me to Serie B. Zeman noticed me in a match I shouldn’t even have played. It was my graduation year, I asked to skip a tournament to revise, but the coach called me up anyway. Boemo was in the stands. ‘You’ll be our midfielder,’ he said. ‘These are crazy,’ I thought. In the end he made me a footballer, but in training he smashed us: we took the steps… with our companions on our shoulders”.

At the beginning of his career he had some teachers.

“I had Gasperini in Crotone, with Ventura I scored the first goal in Serie A in a match that was then lost by default. But the person who changed my life was Iachini in Piacenza, who moved me to midfielder. He taught me all the moves.”

“I didn’t even have to go there, Napoli, Udinese and Fiorentina wanted me, but Ranieri told me to play it. I saw Buffon, Nedved, Del Piero and I thought: ‘But what am I doing here? I’m bringing water bottles…’. I felt out of place.”

In the end he played 36 games, 26 of which he started.

“I have always run for the phenomena, but my strength was recognizing my qualities. I wasn’t Pirlo, but Nocerino: I had to do mine well.”

After Juve, Palermo.

“The square where I had the most fun: I would have stayed for life. Three years of God, between barbecues, dinners, jokes and phenomena: Miccoli, Pastore, Cavani, Ilicic. I didn’t care about money. In 2010 Zamparini refounded everything and I went to Milan for 500 thousand euros. Thinking about it makes me laugh.”

“I saw Gattuso, Ambrosini, Van Bommel and the others and thought ‘Here, they’ll put me in the storage room’. And instead… boom: 11 goals in the championship and cups.”

With how many assists from Ibra?

“Three or four. The approach was devastating: he hit me in a practice match and I flew. But I went looking for the goals. Zlatan was marked by two players, there was a chasm behind him. I slipped in there.”

The best moment with the Rossoneri?

“The goal against Barcelona at the Camp Nou with my father in the stands. It encompasses where I started from and where I arrived, the suffering and the difficulties. That food on the table that was sometimes missing. From Piazza del Plebiscito to that stadium there…”.

“The goal taken away from Muntari. Impossible not to see it. We would have won the scudetto again.”

A word for Berlusconi?

“Aura. She knew my children’s names and even where they went to school…”

“Courage. He had it with me.”

In 2016 she left Italy for Kakà’s Orlando, who convinced her to leave. How come?

“I felt inadequate, I no longer recognized myself in what I saw: selfies, social media, dunno… Furthermore, my wife and I had just lost our parents in a month. I had played for West Ham, so I said to myself ‘Why not try again?’. Since 2020 we have been living in Florida.”

How much fun do you have being a coach now?

“I like coaching more than playing, you think. I managed the kids at Orlando, then the Primavera of Potenza and Miami. Las Vegas, in the second series, wasn’t the project I thought I was and I left. Now I’m stuck, but I watch all the matches and continue to study. The dream of returning to Italy is there, but I’m fine here. As is my family. We live near the Disneyland castle.”

“Yes, three: having been on the bench a lot at Euro 2012, not having played for Napoli and having lost the Italian Cup final against Palermo in 2010. Winning there has a different flavour. In fact, do you know what I’m telling you? As soon as you can, get on a plane and go to Sicily. It will change your life.”