The former Inter striker: “We had actually lost that championship before… As a boy I sent Vialli to hell who I called at home, I didn’t know it was really him. I chose Inter for Ronaldo. Once I went to visit him in Brazil and they didn’t check my passport: ‘I’m here like the Pope in Rome,’ he told me.”
There was a time when Nicola Ventola even bypassed the Ministry of Education. “I took my final exam the day after scoring two goals against Turkey in the final of the Mediterranean Games in 1997. I took advantage of an exemption. The Carabinieri showed up with a trace of Italian just for me. I was 19 years old, I had scored 10 goals in Serie B with Bari. I felt like a superhero, but the injuries devastated me.” Today Nicola talks about football together with Adani and Cassano. He travels quickly towards his fifties with his usual smile, but behind his lightheartedness there are also broken dreams.
Ten knee operations, a year of inactivity. Ventola, what did we miss about her?
“Those who saw me at 18, from Cassano to Buffon, from Totti to Pirlo, were always impressed by my running. I started from behind and arrived at the goal dozens of times, like a train. But once I lost these qualities I had to adapt. And I lost much, if not all, of my strength.”
In 1998 half of Italy wanted it.
“Inter and Roma offered me the same salary, Totti called me every day, but I chose the Nerazzurri for Ronaldo. I also spoke with Milan, Juve, Monaco and with Vialli, who was at Chelsea at the time. Gianluca called home, my mother answered, when he told me that ‘Mr. Vialli’ was on the phone, I replied, sending him to hell. Damn, it was him…”.
How was the first injury?
“Terrible. I was at my peak, then the crusader missed in Empoli-Bari due to a mistake by Daniele Baldini, who after 25 years has still not apologized to me. I came back against Inter and scored.”
What was the most serious stop?
“The one at 24. Nobody in Italy wanted to operate on me, I thought about quitting, but Branchini took me to Steadman, in Colorado. I would have to have an osteotomy operation, that is, break the bone and straighten it. Once he visited me he told me that the operation would be 70% successful. In the end everything went well, but I didn’t play for a year.”
Did he need help?
“I was no longer the same. Sometimes a psychologist came to the house. It was like I had a curse, I no longer believed in anything.”
What is your relationship with faith like now?
“I recovered, but I was angry with God. I grew up going to church, my family wanted me to study. At 17, Bari wanted to send me to Como, but my father was clear: ‘That’s where you go’. I attended law school, but I left with 11 exams to go. In 2019 I graduated in Communications. I did it for my dad, who died in 2000. He hasn’t seen my son, I miss him every day.”
With his father he negotiated the renewals with Matarrese.
“At 18 I didn’t have an agent, dad told me not to talk and to let him do it. When the president said a figure I immediately accepted. Dad was pissed off, Matarrese was laughing. He looked like Lino Banfi”.
“We are brothers. Once I went to Brazil and at the airport no one checked my passport. ‘I am here as Pope in Rome,’ he replied.”
Was the free kick against Spartak your idea?
“He got fixated, he wanted to give it to me with his heel to make me shoot. ‘You see, I’m not Ronaldo, if I shoot it in the corner they’ll boo me,’ I told him. It went well: I scored an incredible goal. Ronie was like that: he incited the fans like an orchestra conductor, he targeted poor Taribo with dozens of tunnels. He always didn’t care about diets.”
Is the scudetto lost on May 5th your biggest regret?
“Yes, along with not having made my debut in the national team. Everyone remembers Lazio, but we threw it away first. Mentally we had won: we had brought the shirts, the cameras. I remember Ronie’s tears and those of the fans at the airport. We asked ourselves: ‘But why us?'”.
But is it true that Gresko was saved by the police the next day?
“Of course. People had mobbed him.”
“I should have made my debut against Spain, November 1998. Zoff had promised me. First, however, there was Inter-Samp: I earned two penalties, but at the second I fell badly and blew my ligament. And also the blue train. I would have deserved it.”
What was it like to quit at 32?
“Tough, but I’m proud of one thing: having scored the last goal in Serie A at the Olimpico, against Roma, the team I sympathized with as a child. I’m sorry I arrived in Turin at the end of my career, an incredible place. In Novara, however, I arrived in Serie C. I asked for the minimum salary with a promotion bonus. When we went up they wanted to kill me.”
Where was the best fan seen?
“In the two years in Bergamo, where I scored 15 goals in Serie B the year of promotion, in the first months at Inter and Bari. I made my Serie A debut at 16 against Fiorentina and took a big kick from Marcio Santos. At Grumo Appula I enjoyed telling people that I had received a bludgeon from a world champion.”
Are you a happy man today?
“Yes, I have everything and I do what I love with my friends, Lele (Adani, ed.) and Antonio (Cassano, ed.), who still scolds me because I never gave him shorts as a child. With our programme, Viva el futbol, we have crazy fun: some love us, others hate us, we annoy others. But there is competence behind it. Adani and Cassano watch 6-7 games a day, I a little less”.
But do you miss your friendship with Vieri? After the argument that caused the dissolution of Bobo TV you no longer spoke to each other.
“When a 25-year relationship ends, it’s always a shame. When we meet we don’t say hello. But I, as a peaceful man, say that time will heal the wounds.”
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