Pippo Inzaghi in his book: “I quit a year earlier because of Allegri”

Pippo Inzaghi with GB Olivero

June 20th
– Milan

From today, “The right moment” is in bookstores, the autobiography published by Cairo that Pippo Inzaghi wrote together with GB Olivero, journalist of the Journal. Today at 18.30, at the Mondadori in Piazza Duomo in Milan, there will be the presentation. Here we anticipate four excerpts.

Dictating the passage is like a dance step from a distance with your partner: you have to work well as a couple, he has to serve you at the right time and you have to be in the right place. All of me is in this action. I start on the offside line. Seedorf understood in advance, his throw is perfect, I stop in the chest and slip slightly to the right. But I don’t need to look at the door, it never helped me: I “feel” it. Fontana, the Novara goalkeeper, promptly comes out to meet me and closes the mirror for me, at least that’s what he believes. I make a right footed shot and the ball goes into the net. I go crazy. I run under the curve, the first to hug me is Nesta. The last shot of my life is a goal: I no longer have any doubts, I won’t be tempted by any offer, this is my last game. It’s over. Before returning to midfield, I stop, turn towards the fans, kneel, lift my shirt and kiss it. A moved kiss, sweet, swollen with eternal gratitude. The referee whistles, I see my nephew Tommaso running to me. I hold him tightly, my heart closes. I look at my South and say hello… Bye Milan, bye San Siro. It was wonderful.

It was Allegri who ended my playing career. In fact, in the spring of 2012 Milan and I had reached an agreement to extend my contract by one year. I would have been an important glue in the locker room which in a short time had lost Maldini, Pirlo, Nesta, Gattuso, Seedorf. Thick elements that had left a deep void. I would not have made any claims… Galliani was happy to have found this solution together with me. Allegri, on the other hand, rejected it, he didn’t want me in the locker room anymore and told the manager asking that my contract not be renewed. For me it was a blow.

Angela was patient with me, entering my complex life gently. I had had many relationships, but few serious stories. So I had a lot to learn about married life. I wouldn’t be believable if now I said that everything was easy or that there weren’t any dark moments. Indeed, I believe that difficulties are fundamental for cementing the union, for understanding that one is ready to face life together. A love story is not a tree-lined avenue, all straight and without potholes. It’s rather a mixed route, one of those that are even more fascinating to explore because behind every bend there is a new discovery and when a bottleneck happens, and we have had some, you have to slow down, carefully evaluate how to pass and go further. And by slowing down, there’s more time to look into each other’s eyes and find a way forward. Thus, once the bottleneck has been overcome, you can accelerate again and enjoy the journey. I am proud to have deserved this great love, exactly as Angela deserved it. And it was the confirmation of what I had already learned with football: the sweetest and most beautiful joys come through sacrifices. And so we gradually adapted to each other with simplicity and pleasure. The taste of being together was so beautiful that it erased every little difficulty. Everything fitted together perfectly. Yes, the one between me and Angela is the perfect fit.

In the autumn of 2015, the balloon was deflated for the first time: it no longer bounced. And I couldn’t absorb the distance from my world, from the scent of the grass, from the sacredness of the locker room. I got up in the morning and didn’t know how to get to the evening. I went to the gym, but without enthusiasm, just to pass the time, fill the day and prevent boredom and discouragement from taking over. My body sent me unmistakable signals of discomfort. I’m scared. Indeed, I say it clearly and without shame: I was afraid. I did four gastroscopies and other unpleasant analyses, I always traveled with a purse full of CDs with ultrasounds and MRIs that I showed to various specialists. I feared I had something serious, even ALS. It’s been months of hardship and suffering, in which I struggled to find a way out. Someone calls it bad for living, someone in another way, I preferred to dribble definitions and diagnoses and face reality. I understood what the problem was and I overcame it little by little, surrounding myself with the love of the family. My parents were amazing: they understood what I needed.