Interview Riccardo Gaucci: “I want to save Perugia like my father did”

Riccardo Gaucci has not lost count of the thousand lives lived in Perugia. Over the last thirty years he has been captain of the Primavera with which he won two championships, striker of the five-a-side football team, also the boy that Nevio Scala wanted to send to the bench against Totti and Balbo’s Roma: “During the finishing phase for a tackle with Dicara I suffered a serious sprain in my knee. I wasn’t able to make my debut. Dad Luciano was categorical: ‘If you can’t play in Serie A with our shirt you have to stop’. So at 21 years old, in 1997, I became a manager.” Between victories, historic successes and disastrous falls, Gaucci returned last October. A movie-like twist by Argentine president Javier Faroni, determined to save the Umbrian club from the abyss. “The team was coming off seven consecutive defeats and had already changed two coaches in ten matchdays. When CEO Herman Borras called me I accepted immediately. Perugia also needed me, I became technical manager. Together with the management, with the entry into the club of Walter Novellino, we chose Giovanni Tedesco on the bench. We wanted an experienced coach ready for battle”. There have been five useful results in a row in group B (two wins, three draws), now the match against Juventus U23.

Gaucci, the Bianconeri again, like that May 14, 2000.

“But now we are fighting to save ourselves in Serie C and the U23 is a team of young talents. Twenty-five years ago it was a completely different game: the Curi deluge, Collina referee, Mazzone and Ancelotti on the bench. We won with a goal from Calori and Lazio won the scudetto.”

Today with Tedesco the team seems to have finally changed gear.

“We are third from last with 12 points, we want to get out of the quicksand and bring Perugia back to where they deserve to be. We have known each other for a long time with the coach: as a player he wore the captain’s armband. He also scored the goal in the Intertoto Cup final against Wolfsburg. We also worked together in Malta with Floriana. He was the right man to start again.”

His father Luciano managed to drag the club from C1 to A in four years. What is his goal?

“One step at a time, we can’t look too far ahead. I spent 15 years in this club. Immediately after the phone call from the owners, all the love I feel for the red and white colors was rekindled. I suffered to see the team at the bottom of the table. I will do everything to avoid relegation.”

In the last Perugia in Serie A, she was next to her father.

“An extraordinarily generous and intelligent man. He revolutionized society thanks to his ideas. Think of the big market coups: the distribution of television rights was very different. The only way Perugia could fight on equal terms against a top club like Juventus was to buy players abroad. Good ones, but they earned little.”

From the Chinese meteor Ma-Ming Yu to the Argentinian Pablo Guinazu, up to a couple of purchases that have become historic.

“Like the South Korean Ahn. His only fault is having done what he had to do. He scored the decisive golden goal in the round of 16 of the 2002 World Cup against Italy, Byron Moreno’s match. I still can’t explain what went through my father’s mind: he fired him live on TV at the Biscardi Trial. He never returned to Perugia.”

Before him, Nakata arrived in Umbria.

“A robot. I’ve never met a professional like him in my entire career. He trained three times as much as the others, never changed his diet, always punctual, precise, polite. He didn’t seem human. That’s why he became a champion.”

Then it was Saadi Gaddafi’s turn.

“A sincere friend. He faced atrocious situations because of his surname. He could have saved Perugia from bankruptcy.”

“In 2005 he was joining the club. Unfortunately Colantuono never let him play, so he left. With Gaddafi the club would certainly have remained alive.”

Many champions left Perugia: Grosso, Materazzi, Gattuso. The most difficult to manage?

“Croatian Milan Rapaic. In the early 2000s we also had a five-a-side football team, every day he finished his work on the pitch and went into the sports hall next door. He started training again, without anyone knowing. He was tireless.”

He spent 15 years in Umbria, first as a player and then as a manager. What is your fondest memory?

“The match against Verona on 9 June 1996 with Galeone on the bench. We won 3-2 and returned to Serie A. Almost 30 years have passed, but I remember every moment. The party with the fans, the red and white invasion in the city. I have never seen my father so happy as that time”.

How did we go from triumph to failure?

“Dad had changed, he suffered from Alzheimer’s, my brother Alessandro and I realized it late. I would give everything to go back and avoid that tragic ending.”

The entire Gaucci family paid the consequences.

“I have closed the memories in a drawer. It is a part of our life that I would like to forget. I prefer to remember my father for all the good things he managed to do. Including his spontaneous follies.”

The fight with Matarrese will remain an epic moment.

“I was at Cagliari airport, following the five-a-side football group. We were about to board. On one of the TVs in front of the gate a news report comes on: I see my father arguing and heavily insulting Matarrese. They all stopped to watch, we burst out laughing.”

When Luciano Gaucci started there was none for anyone.

“He took the team on retreat even after the victories. Everyone locked themselves in hotels for at least two weeks. The players couldn’t see their families and complained. I remember someone punching the lockers and breaking their hands in anger. Dad often exaggerated, but it was his way of setting the goal.”

You led the Maltese Floriana to the Europa League preliminaries, with your Assisi you reached Promotion starting from the First Category. And now?

“I want to save Perugia. I owe it to the history of this club and to the fans. Dad would be proud.”