The former Roma striker, now a real estate developer: “Moratti told me that I would become an Inter flag, two months later I was at Roma. If I could go back in time I would play the Euro 2000 final again with France. With real estate it’s like in the box: you have to sense the opportunity before the others”
He arrives at the appointment at sunset in sports attire, punctual as if he still had to go to training. Marco Delvecchio stopped years ago, but football remained with him: in his pace and discipline. Even at the bar, his trusted one, where he doesn’t even have to order: bitter coffee regardless of the time, because “sugars are bad for you”. Today he buys, sells and rents properties in the center of Rome. Real estate gave him a second career, not another life. “The mentality is the same as the striker Delvecchio”. Change the field, not the way of being in the world. And to think that once he even tried to hide that profession. When he met the woman who would become his wife, he didn’t tell her he was a footballer. She discovered it at the stadium: the seat next to hers was empty. Because Marco wasn’t in the stands. He was on the pitch.
Tell the truth: were you ashamed of being a footballer?
“No, it wasn’t shame. It’s true, I had hidden it from my ex-wife, but because I didn’t want her to get close to me just because I was a Serie A player… I had to understand if there was more.”
When he met her he was still the young striker on whom Inter was building their future.
“Yes, I felt the trust. They launched me in Serie A and I always got along very well with Moratti. Two months before he sold me he told me that I would become a flagship for Inter. Then came the exchange with Branca and I ended up at Roma. Today I can only thank that choice.”
Roma wanted a striker like Balbo or Voeller, I wasn’t that type of striker and they made me feel bad about it
Carlo Mazzone was there to welcome her to the capital.
“Mazzone was a spectacular man. As soon as he arrived he told me: ‘Up front we have two phenomena, Balbo and Fonseca, and then behind there is a very strong boy who wants to play as a starter. You will carve out your space’. That boy was Francesco. I thought: ‘So what did I come to do?’. Then things went differently.”
Mazzone in a flash?
“A strong, decisive man, but also full of irony. I remember the last match with him, against Inter. He entered the locker room and said: ‘Boys, we may not have won anything, but how much fun did we have?’. That was Carlo.”
When Zeman arrives in 1997, criticism against him also arrives.
“Roma was actually looking for a different center forward, a striker like Balbo or Voeller. I wasn’t that type of striker and some of the fans made me feel bad about it. There was even talk of an exchange with Trezeguet, but in the end nothing came of it with Monaco.”
From those whistles comes a celebration that has become iconic: the hands behind the ears.
“It began as a challenge: I wanted to make it clear that I was doing my job. Then, after a discussion with the fans in Trigoria, that gesture changed its meaning. It was no longer to hear the whistles, but the celebration of the people. It became my way of celebrating Roma.”
Rome, however, celebrated it above all in the derbies.
“They were the most important matches of the year, but I experienced them lightly. Maybe that was the secret: when you feel too much about a match, you risk making a mistake.”
Nesta told me: ‘You became famous thanks to me’
And in those derbies there was always an opponent who seemed to suffer more than the others: Nesta.
“Alessandro was a very correct defender and this was to my advantage. We were also similar physically, in the way we ran. Maybe that’s why I was able to put him in difficulty, to the point of making him slip. When we met in the national team I often made fun of him, but he replied: ‘You became famous thanks to me'”.
Of all the derbies, is there one that is closest to your heart?
“The one on 11 April 1999. That day everything went well: we won 3-1, Francesco and I scored twice. There were also the t-shirts: his, ‘I purged you again’, remained in the memory because it was a joke. Mine was a derby self-celebration”.
After all, that match also tells another story: that of him and Francesco Totti.
“Francis was the constant of an entire era. The flag and the eighth king of Rome. The greatest player I ever played with. Together we shared a lifetime of memories.”
Tell me one that represents him well.
“I was returning from the World Cup in Japan and Korea and I hadn’t done any training yet. I thought I was just there to form a group. At the meeting Capello reads the starters and I hear my name. Francesco bursts out laughing, turns to the coach and says: ‘Is this guy crazy?’. In the end I played and even scored.”
That agreement had been decisive for Capello especially in the year of the scudetto.
“In July 2000 Fabio called me and told me: “This year I will play with Totti and Batistuta up front, but you have to fill me in on the full flank. Only in this way can we win the scudetto”. I accepted and he was right.”
If there was a time machine, where would it go back?
“At Euro 2000. I would do the same final against France again, changing only the last twenty seconds. Scoring in a European final with the national team was extraordinary. Conceding that goal from Wiltord in the 93rd minute, however, was one of the biggest pains of my career (we then went to extra time with Trezeguet’s golden goal, ed.). Second only to the farewell to Roma.”
Today his field is another: real estate.
“The key has remained exactly the same: smell the opportunity before the others”.
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