The goalkeeper was disqualified for betting: “The police entered my house with machine guns, but they found nothing. Today I tell kids not to chase fashion and the good life”
When you browsed through the Panini album, you were struck by his hairstyle: whimsical, never ordinary. Generoso Rossi had bleached hair and blonde streaks. He defended the posts in Bari, Lecce, Venice, Siena and then was disqualified for football betting in his best moment, after having smelled the air of the national team. Today he is 46 years old and has reinvented himself in his own way. For ten years he has been running a school for goalkeepers which bears his initials, “GR1”, in Mugnano di Napoli.
Do you follow today’s football?
“Honestly it disgusts me, it has no values. Footballers have become bad examples for children. I try to convey something else to my kids, that is, not to follow fashions, not to simulate, not to aspire to designer clothing, luxury cars, the good life. I try to teach them to look beyond precisely because I was like that when I was young.”
Do you think you’ve wasted too much money?
“Alas, yes. Even though I sent my first salaries, at the time of Bari, to my mother. At 12 I lost my father and I became the man of the house, I have six sisters. I have always been someone who liked to go out and party. Often on Thursdays or Fridays I would come home at three, but on the pitch I gave everything and they knew it.”
“I played against Noicattaro with my town’s team. In the stands there was Beppe Materazzi, Marco’s father. I saved a penalty, at the end of the match he went to ask who I was. I was playing three years under my age.”
In 2000 Fascetti gave her her debut in Serie A.
“September 2000, against Verona. He was a good sergeant. Cassano, my roommate, was also on the pitch. Even then he saw dozens of matches of unknown leagues and wouldn’t let me sleep. But we organized pranks on anyone. At the airport we shouted people’s names at random, then we accused the other teammates and hid. Once, in Lecce, I filled the cotton wool with alcohol, put it under the masseur’s chair and set everything on fire.”
The exploit in Siena, before terminating the contract.
“It was the fault of an argument with Papadopulo. Before the Roma-Siena game the goalkeeping coach told me to stay focused, I didn’t understand and continued training. I had played 21 games as a starter, focused on what? In the end, I didn’t play. We lost 6-0 and I came back alone, not with the bus.”
And what did he say to Papadopulo?
“That no one could stand him and that he wasn’t sincere. There was a big argument, I left some money on the table and told him to go and buy what he wanted. Obviously I never played again from there.”
At the end of the year he was banned for 12 months for football betting. How did it go?
“I was a small fish and they put me in that position. They ruined a career that was promising. I was owned by Palermo. Without that disqualification I would have gone to Lazio to compete with Peruzzi.”
But did he bet on the matches or not?
“Yes, but not on my team. I was betting on Serie C, but I couldn’t do it. I’ve never sold a match, like others who still play. One of these is Masiello, but I’m also thinking of Fagioli. I would have banned them all.”
“At 4 in the morning the police entered my house with machine guns and seized bank accounts, telephone and computer. I was accused of Camorra-style criminal association. They found nothing.”
However, the interceptions with Salvatore Ambrosino, a former footballer who was also involved, set her up.
“In reality they confused dialect expressions with who knows what. I am Neapolitan, speaking to him I said “you understand, yes?”. But that wasn’t what they meant. I did it to get him away from me. I was accused of having manipulated a Chievo-Siena match that finished 1-1 in 2004, and I wasn’t even playing. The greatest satisfaction came from Delio Rossi, however. He was called to testify on the matter and spoke of Lecce-Palermo in Serie B, 2002-03 season, where we achieved promotion. I was already with the Rosanero, we played everything with them. We won 3-0 and I came out as the best on the pitch. For Rossi it was impossible for someone like me to sell a match.”
What hurt you the most in the whole affair?
“Going around with the brand of “match seller”. If I hadn’t had a family behind me I would have fallen into depression. The blow was hard, believe me: when I played twenty thousand people shouted “sold” at me. The criminal justice system acquitted me, while the sports justice system condemned me. There are people who played with me in Siena who really were risking their home.”
Without the disqualification where would he have arrived?
“At the time they also followed me for the national team. I could have been part of the world champion Italy, but instead I was forced to go abroad, to England, to QPR, for six months. They left me alone, abandoned. In the following years, however, I was reborn in Trieste in Serie B. And there too I had offers from Serie A…”.
“They said: “But is he the sold one?”. An indelible stain. Except for Catania, who took me in 2008 as second, I wasn’t able to move up. I had the black mark. I sued the FIGC for this, and it’s still ongoing. I stopped in 2013 after three years in Sorrento. There I also met Sarri, a phenomenon.”
A dream for the future?
“Being able to train a goalkeeper for Serie A. For the rest, I’m doing the job I would have liked to do… when I grew up.”
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