The writer between football and tennis: “We Juventusians were affected by an autoimmune disease. We have lost identity and the national team also pays the consequences”
Sandro Veronesi was born in Florence, he grew up in Prato and cheering for Juve. Strange, almost unnatural, given the atavistic hatred of the Florentines and of many Tuscans for the lady, but the writer explains that Prato is for the arch-Nemica-Nemica statute of Florence: “Like all the cities that have a history of oppression behind Florence, millenary antagonisms. When I attended elementary school in Prato, in the sixties, the Florentine option was not expected: Juve or Inter. When I discovered that the word means youth.
Paolo Rossi was born and raised in Prato. She is from ’59, she was from ’56: she ever crossed her as a child?
“No, but some of my friends played there with Cattolica Virtus and talked very well about this child who scored many goals. In Prato I met Christian Vieri. Opposite center forward, Bobo and Paolo. Paolo’s goals seemed miracles. Those of Vieri were expected. Rossi was Mingherlin, but who shot the second goal in Brazil in 1982 in Spain. Rossi was equipped with great technique. Super center forward at Juve and the national team “.
What was his first reference Juventus area?
“Roberto Bettega for the elegance of his game, but I chose to make me call Sandro, and not Alexander as per the registry, in homage to Sandro Salvadore (great Juventus defender between the sixty and seventies, editor’s note). Then I liked the German Haller. I remember this attack: Haller, causio, Anastasi, Capello, Bettega. Anastasi. How it would end in Mexico ’70 if an accident had not deprived us of Pietro Anastasi “.
His favorite between Platini, Del Piero and Baggio?
“Platini for the mix of technical beauty and nonconformism. It appeared listless, the rhetoric of the sweaty shirt and the smell of the grass did not belong to him. If I had to choose between Platini and Maradona, nine times out of ten I vote Platini. When they canceled the goal in Tokyo in the Internontinental, incomprehensible decision, he lay down and wore a disenchanted expression: In the best sense of the term. Maradona would have taken the referee for the jugular.
Mario Mandzukic Croatian center forward?
“Extraordinary and underestimated player, capable of scoreing inverted to Real in the Champions League 2017 final. It would take now, Mandzukic”.
How and when are today’s problems come about?
“When the Rumba of the obsession for the Champions League started, which you cannot plan to win. The PSG managed to us this year after years. Tradition has been smeared, the logo has been changed. The black and white stripes have been mistreated to conquer the US market, and in America the black vertical lines bring them the referees of hockey. Fear, disperse identity. It happened in 1982, in 2006 … Now we risk piercing the third world in a row.
Tennis, the other great passion of his. Those who grew up on bread and panotta perhaps struggles to understand Sinner’s game. What do you think?
“I would wait to give a technical judgment on Sinner. He has not finished developing, it is a talent in the making and has a top-level staff, the Cahill-Vagnozzi duo will make him grow again. Alcaraz will have to improve more, to overcome him. Sinner has taken over with methods, he will soon acquire the variety of play. Against certain opponents you have to hammer about rhythm, against others you have to vary it: Federer. Sinner is a natural sports phenomenon.
Can the Grand Slam be, winning the 4 most important trophies in the same year?
“The Grand Slam today requires a difficult physical continuity to achieve and maintain. It will win all the Slam, it is sure, perhaps at the turn of two seasons. Wimbledon has won us, what never succeeded before. He will bring us the four Slam. What else can we ask him to amaze us?”.
It is South Tyrolean, therefore an Italian far from the usual stereotypes.
“It seems to me a superficial reading. We had other South Tyrolean champions, Gustav Thoeni in skiing and Klaus Dibiasi in dives. Sinner is in this furrow. Be careful because you soon get expired in the stain of the Italian Pulcinella. We are no longer spaghetti, guitar and mandolin, this affectionate and unruly affair of Italian is dated. In tennis, I saw John McEnroe, American: if you removed the anger, you paraded the genius.
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