They said immediately: “As a footballer, he is a paradox.” And they were right. His most obvious weakness became his secret weapon. He overcame problems caused by uncertain ball control with incredible bursts of speed. His first touch often seemed imprecise, but he would always reach the ball before his opponents.
Pietro Anastasi was a crucial center-forward for both Juventus and the Italian national team. For many years, he represented a role model for young people from Southern Italy seeking sporting success, which sometimes became true social redemption.
Born in Catania on April 7, 1948, his family was not wealthy. “Seven people in two rooms,” he once recounted. Like many boys, school wasn`t for him. He preferred the streets with a ball at his feet, often barefoot to save his shoes. Football became his life`s passion. His career progressed rapidly, and success came quickly. After two years with Massiminiana in Serie D, he moved to Varese in 1966. Two seasons in Lombardy followed, and then Juventus won the intense competition with Inter to sign him for a record price of 660 million lire in 1968.
1968 was a magical year for Italian football. Italy hosted the European Championship, an opportunity for the national team to re-establish itself among football`s great powers. On the evening of Saturday, June 8th, at the Stadio Olimpico, Italy played Yugoslavia in the final. Anastasi made his debut for Italy, though he didn`t particularly stand out in a lackluster team performance. A 1-1 draw was an undeserved result for Italy, but two days later, in the replay, the Italians showed their pride. It was a triumph: a goal from Riva and a beautiful overhead kick from Anastasi, nicknamed “Pietruzzo.”
Anastasi`s game was characterized by great intuition, genius, and unfortunately, also indiscipline, which would become his limitation. “My best qualities were my speed, acceleration, and unselfishness,” he said. “Even though I wore the number nine jersey, even for the national team, I often positioned myself on the left wing to cross for a teammate. I was a penalty box striker who could also contribute to build-up play.”
Two years later, he was eagerly anticipated at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. He was in great form, but a foolish accident forced him to withdraw just hours before departure. Roberto Boninsegna replaced him, later also taking his place at Juventus.
Anastasi also participated in the 1974 World Cup, but by then, his career was nearing its end. He played 25 games for the national team, scoring 8 goals.
When he first arrived at Juventus headquarters in Galleria San Federico, he was without a tie. The then-president, Vittore Catella, warned him: “When you come to the office, it would be good from now on to dress with a proper shirt and tie.” However, the contract was good, and the agreed salary was also satisfactory. The coach was Heriberto Herrera, known as “the Gymnasiarch,” a man who didn`t seek or offer sympathy. Once, during training, Anastasi struggled to understand one of the many tactical schemes, and Herrera yelled at him in front of teammates, journalists, and fans: “Fool, watch, because you don`t understand anything!”
His relationship with Juventus was never entirely serene.
When he started scoring regularly again, a banner appeared in the stadium: “Anastasi, the White Pelé.”
His statistics: 302 appearances and 129 goals. The 1971-72 season marked his first league title, immediately followed by another the next year. He won his third league title in 1974-75, always in black and white, of course.
He left Juventus for Inter in 1976-77, then played for Ascoli before retiring from football, with an impressive record.
Years later, he said: “I left because I had a disagreement with coach Parola after an away game in Holland, but I always remained on excellent terms with the club. Juventus is where I felt most at home, and I will always be a Juventus fan.”
Vladimiro Caminiti wrote that Anastasi was signed by President Catella, thanks to the intervention of lawyer Gianni Agnelli with Giovannone Borghi, the refrigerator magnate. Borghi, a man of good intentions, had almost reached an agreement with Inter for Anastasi, but a last-minute issue with refrigerator compressors led Anastasi to Juventus, even after he had already worn the Inter jersey in a friendly.
Some were scandalized. In reality, the transfer was only postponed by a few years, the best years of the career of this “picciotto” (young man), with dark skin, bright eyes, sharp cunning, and swift legs like a greyhound.
At Juventus, he found the disciplinarian coach Heriberto Herrera, whose few true admirers in a football country enslaved by technical laziness included the archaic but great Gipo Viani. “Juventus is playing the most modern football in the world; the era of specialists is over. I only score goals, I only defend,” said Herrera before a season that was disappointing for Juventus, but not for Anastasi, whose 14 goals showcased his instinctive cunning and a powerful right foot.
Cunning, hungry for everything, especially popularity, it`s striking that he didn`t like speaking in the dialect of Meli. He expressed himself in formal Italian, showing his refined style (his first kicks were barefoot on the arid fields of Catania`s outskirts) already in his first Juventus season: 1968-69.
Fame quickly went to his head. He had difficult relationships with journalists, including myself. In the locker room, some teammates, like Furino, never got along with him. He often displayed arrogant behavior.
Yet, Juventus changed the way football was experienced. Heriberto Herrera initiated the technical renewal that continued dramatically at the end of this season when coach Rabitti arrived, and the team regained confidence and won applause.
Lawyer Agnelli had already recalled Boniperti as CEO; soon, he would make him president, the first technical president in the history of Italian football. The unequaled and unparalleled Juventus of collective effort on and off the field was born.
Anastasi had plenty of time, six years of joys and scolding, of great goals and sensational blunders, to leave his mark. A center-forward like him had never been seen before. Instinct was embodied in a dazzling burst of speed like the waves of the Etnean sea under its fiery sun. Arriving in black and white, he was already famous; in the national team jersey, he had become a European champion in Rome.
Compared to traditional center-forwards, he was a mix of Gabetto and Lorenzi, with more flair than technique, more physical command of the action than tactical sense. He chased goals like a stallion chases a mare.
When Vycpalek replaced the ailing Picchi, things didn`t go well for Anastasi because Vycpalek was kind but caustic, loved clear positions, and loyalty. Anastasi behaved like a diva in a locker room where the collective ruled.
But immediately he became “Pietruzzo” for me, playing amazing games and scoring many decisive goals.
Perhaps the league title of the first Boniperti era (1971-72) was also his most effective season. His contribution was crucial, along with everyone else`s, to compensate for the absence of Bettega, who had fallen ill.
“That league title represented the first milestone of my career and my Juventus experience. I arrived in the North as a boy and soon became a man, thanks to the atmosphere in the club: it was the time of Catella, Giordanetti, Allodi, and especially Boniperti.”
A tormented and dramatic season for Vycpalek was resolved in a sprint finish, with a good 2-0 win at the Comunale against Vicenza. And it can be said that this Juventus of Anastasi reconnected with the club`s best tradition, winning by a single point (43 to 42) over Milan and Torino, but it was, as written in its emblem, the victory of the strong who have faith.
Anastasi would win two more league titles, including the 15th, in which his volcanic talent slightly subsided.
Was there something wrong with Anastasi`s athletic habits? Did he have any personal problems? It can be answered without hesitation: his instinct-driven game, his repeated bursts of speed, wore him out. Without the rapacious physical strength of a Chinaglia, his game was no less relentless, tormenting goalkeepers.
His revival would be different, just as Catania is different from Palermo, the Etnean sea from the sea of Mondello, this burst of speed in Schillaci.
In the conquest of his third league title, 1974-75 season, Anastasi paired with Damiani, nine goals each, one less than the eternal Altafini.
Sparks and golden flakes of his inimitable speed were now ash. With a stroke of genius, Boniperti exchanged him for the aging Boninsegna in the summer of 1976. The White Pelé would shipwreck in the mists of Milan.
Alberto Fasano wrote that Anastasi, nicknamed Pietruzzo, was perhaps the head of the school, the pioneer of footballers who came from the South to the North to make their fortune.
Not everyone knows that Pietro Anastasi`s destiny was probably determined by a pregnant woman who showed up at Catania airport, begging to be allowed to leave, even without a seat on the plane, because she absolutely had to go to Milan.
That gentleman, Casati, then general manager of Varese, gave her his seat, agreeing to leave the following evening. On Monday afternoon, Casati went to Cibali to watch a youth team match; a certain Pietro Anastasi was playing in one of those teams. Casati watched him carefully, and the deal was closed in a few hours. Anastasi bought himself a new jacket and a brand-new suitcase to go North.
He became famous for scoring goals, starting his career in the ranks of Varese. Immediately, the “picciotto” won his battle against the monster of the North: the cold, indifference, lack of communication. He won without ever shying away from the danger of certain battles, facing them head-on even when he knew he was risking a lot.
He was supposed to end up at Inter, but Gianni Agnelli snatched the player from Fraizzoli and dressed him in black and white when he had already been photographed in black and blue for the illusory joy of Inter fans.
At Juve, he made his fortune and was idolized by the crowd: he was the center-forward who, in the hyperbole of fans, was labeled Superpietro, White Pelé, or similar things.
His image was installed in paradoxical sports “votive offerings” and repeated in hundreds of photographic poses in Turin homes, Sicilian houses, behind the bed, on the kitchen door, on top of chests of drawers and sideboards.
At the Stadio Comunale, in the black and white jersey, not life began, but the popular legend of Pietruzzo. Robust, albeit small, fast and nimble, full of street football fantasies, an instinctive acrobat: this was the player. As a boy, he was likeable, naive, modest, with some sudden bursts of pride.
When he arrived at Juventus in 1968, he was only twenty years old and full of enthusiasm. They immediately froze him, even though it was mid-summer: President Catella, a Piedmontese of the old school, immediately scolded him for daring to show up at the training camp without a tie. So he, who had arrived at his first meeting with the “Old Lady” timid and smiling, left with red eyes. Nor were those tears the last.
In September, Heriberto Herrera`s tactical lesson made his eyes fill with tears again. Fortunately, when he was on the field, everything went smoothly: 28 games, 14 goals, three more than the previous season in Varese.
Not even glory (with the national team jersey and a European Champion title) was a sufficient passport to friendship: he felt rejected, isolated, and so he closed in on himself more and more.
His gloominess, a logical consequence of the difficulty in communication, was mistaken for wildness, and some embroidered on it, even to the point of insult.
The following season, football matters went even better: twenty-nine games, fifteen goals. At the end of the season, fortune turned its back on him: on the eve of the national team`s departure for Mexico, where the World Championships were scheduled, Pietro was struck by violent pains. He was hospitalized and operated on. Goodbye national team, goodbye World Cup.
Misfortune continued to haunt him. He never regained the brilliance of his best days for the following season, scoring only 6 goals, also losing those few passing friends he had managed to gather.
His extraordinary willpower kept him afloat, waiting for better days, for definitive success. It was then that Anastasi began an irreversible process, the one that made him an authentic man, a successful person.
The introverted “picciotto,” former ball boy of Cibali, selfish on the field, surly off it, had finally learned to communicate, inside and outside of football, to become a protagonist: Italian Champion, one of the best, a true leader.
Pietro still remembers that period: “Yes, everyone told me that, and I too had to acknowledge the change, the improvement. But there was no specific reason, beyond the fact that over the years I had matured a bit. When I arrived at Juventus, I distrusted everyone, especially journalists. On the field, I only thought about standing out, about personal gain. Then everything became different, and I realized that Juventus came first, then Anastasi; for the team, I was willing to make any sacrifice.”
Marriage certainly helped him, calming his surliness and regulating his gastronomic excesses: “I liked spicy foods, Sicilian cuisine; many of my negative periods were determined by poor physical condition, a consequence of intestinal problems. One day, I decided to abolish cured meats and spicy sauces; health returned, and technical condition benefited.”
Then his wife, Anna Bianchi, gave him two children, and other important balances were achieved. That was the best period of his career, the one in which he managed to regain a stable place in the national team, eventually collecting 25 appearances.
He won the league title at the end of the 1971-72 season (playing all 30 games) and repeated the feat in 1972-73, playing 27 out of 30 games; the third Italian Championship title came at the end of the 1974-75 season, the year in which Pietro played 25 games.
The divorce from Juve occurred during the 1975-76 season. Believing he was being targeted by coach Parola, Anastasi let himself go with fiery and controversial statements in the week preceding a very delicate derby with Torino.
Juventus had been defeated in Cesena and was preparing to play against Torino. Anastasi, after a training session at Combi, improvised a press conference, during which he emptied, as they say, his sack, full of bitterness and misunderstandings. A precise attack against coach Parola and certain teammates.
As is its style, Juventus removed Anastasi from the team, who in the following season, was sold to Inter in exchange for Boninsegna.
All Juventus fans still remember the sensational news that appeared in the newspapers of July 9, 1976. Juventus announced the transfer of Anastasi to Inter, which gave Boninsegna to Juventus, with an additional 750 million lire.
Simultaneously, Capello was sold to Milan, and Juve received Benetti plus 100 million lire in exchange. A sensational operation that put Juve on the path to further triumphs.
Anastasi, after Inter, landed at Ascoli. Perhaps it was also the goal that Pietruzzo yearned for, after losing the glory of the black and white house. Ascoli represented the quiet provincial town, where the White Pelé is now about to end his long and tormented career.
We recently saw Anastasi and talked about the happy times when he darted like lightning towards the opponent`s net and sent his fans into delirium with the most spectacular and Brazilian goals.
Anastasi remembers everything and everyone, his friendship with Bettega, the only one who managed to somehow thaw him from the world of distrust and misunderstanding in which he had lived for many years.
Deep down, he feels a certain nostalgia for the city of Turin. Perhaps he sees himself as a boy again, desperately chasing a ball on a field of bristly grass, under the scorching Sicilian sun.
Perhaps he remembers the day he landed in Turin, and the legend was colored with the tones of a ballad by a storyteller. In the swarm of attics, of humid agglomerates of the suburbs inhabited by people from his land, the White Pelé managed to bring light with his acrobatics and his very black tuft of hair.
Glory came quickly and placed him on a solid pedestal. Pietro knows that glory had a name: Juventus. For this reason, he has never forgotten the Juventus club and the fans who from the Filadelfia Curve shouted his name: “Pietro, Pietro!”
Nicola Calzaretta wrote that the most striking thing about Pietro Anastasi, born in Catania on April 7, 1948, is his eyes. Dark, sparkling, lively. And his smile. Sunny and melancholic at the same time.
We are at his home in Varese, his wife Anna`s city. “I owe everything to this woman,” says Pietruzzo, as his compatriot Vladimiro Caminiti nicknamed him, “she balanced me. When I tended to get carried away, she brought me back down to earth. When I was down, she knew how to shake me up to get back up.”
They have been together for a lifetime, since 18-year-old Anastasi found himself catapulted to the North after his extraordinary beginnings with Massiminiana in Serie D. 1966-67 season, his first in Varese, then in Serie B.
Marriage in 1970, two children, and since 1993, his well-deserved retirement, with some football coaching, TV commentary, and commitments with Juventus legends.
Yes, because we are here to remember above all his 8 seasons with the Juventus jersey. From 1968 to 1976, three league titles, over 300 appearances, and 130 goals.
Numbers that give the exact measure of a striker who never spared himself on the field and who, for the many Southern Juventus fans, in that early 1970s period, represented the possibility of redemption.
Numbers of a center-forward who forty years ago set a record still unbeaten: three goals scored as a substitute. Do we want to start right from that Juventus-Lazio match on April 27, 1975? “The fourth-to-last game of the league season. We are first with three points ahead of Napoli, and for me, who am also the captain, another bench appearance is looming. Already the previous Sunday against Cagliari, I hadn`t started. But this time I`m not having it. And when coach Carlo Parola reads out the line-up, I tell him I`m going home.”
When does this happen? “The morning before the game, in the Villar Perosa training camp.”
Then he changed his mind. “I call my wife and tell her what`s happening. She suggests I accept the coach`s decisions, but I don`t want to hear reasons. Then during the walk, here comes lawyer Agnelli, aware of the facts. And he also invites me not to do stupid things. But I`m still hurt. The second phone call with Anna is decisive. At that point, I become good as gold and make myself available to the coach.”
Number thirteen, sitting in the middle of Piloni and Spinosi. “Until the 70th minute. We are winning 1-0, but Napoli is also leading. We need to secure the result. And so, when there are twenty minutes left to the end, Parola tells me to come on instead of Bettega. In five minutes, from the 83rd to the 88th, I score a hat-trick. No substitute had ever managed the feat before, and as far as I know, not even after in the Italian league. At that point, at 4-0, the result is more than safe. Mission accomplished.”
Does he remember those three goals? “The first with a right-footed slide, anticipating the defender on a low cross from the right. The second with a left-footed volley at half-height on a cross from the left. The third after a Viola crossbar: on the rebound, I hit the post, get it back and score. On that occasion, Felice Pulici acted like the bear in the fair games: with each shot, he changed direction, without understanding anything anymore.”
It must have been a record for him too to concede three goals in five minutes. “I think so. I was a fury, I didn`t care who I had in front of me at that moment. I had so much anger in my body that if the game had lasted longer, I would have continued to score. Pulici or no Pulici.”
Is it true that the next morning he called lawyer Agnelli? “Yes. He said to me: `Did you see that I was right when I told you not to do stupid things?` I agreed, I didn`t have the heart to tell him that in truth the merit was all my wife`s.”
He played the last three games all from the start. “At that point, it would have been hard for the coach to justify an exclusion. I took back the number nine, the captain`s armband, and in the last game against Vicenza, I scored the goal for the momentary 3-0, experiencing one of the strongest emotions of my career in black and white. At 2-0 for us, the whole stadium had started calling my name. The roar had become louder and more insistent. The fans wanted a goal from me, which in fact arrived in the 36th minute. Then there was a roar, and tears came to my eyes from emotion.”
There has always been a special bond with the fans, hasn`t there? “It`s still like that today, despite many years having passed. The Juventus fan has always appreciated my generosity and commitment. I never played sparingly: for the Juventus jersey, I gave my best.”
And then there`s the Southern question. “For the many workers who came from the South and who toiled in factories, I became a symbol, or rather I was one of them, the one who had had the good fortune to play football. I remember they would stop me outside the stadium and tell me to stand up for them too. It made me proud.”
Some at the time claimed that it was no coincidence that Juventus had many players from the South. “The only truth is that there were several of us: in addition to me, there was Furino, even if he had lived in Turin since he was a child. Then Causio, Cuccureddu, Longobucco, even Spinosi if you want, who was from Rome. But to stay at Juve, it certainly wasn`t enough to be Southern. It took much more. As we demonstrated in those years dominating in Italy, we knew how to play football.”
Perhaps he better than others, given the banner that at one point appeared in the stands. “`Anastasi White Pelé`. It appeared in my first years at Juve. It had a certain effect on me, damn it. But then I said to myself: `I wonder what Pelé thinks about it!`”
And Carlo Parola, instead, what did he think of him? “I don`t know what he had against me. He didn`t see me in a good light, things that happen. My stay at Juve was prejudiced by the not exactly idyllic relationship with him. But I confess to you that I feel a bit uncomfortable talking about a person who is no longer here.”
We can talk about the facts and his feelings. “Parola arrived in 1974. After second place behind Lazio, Boniperti decided to replace Vycpalek with whom we had won two league titles. Vycpalek was a man very close to the president, he knew football, good, with a very paternal manner. It was difficult not to get along with him. The first clash with Parola was in December 1974 on the occasion of the UEFA Cup match in Holland against Ajax. I`m injured, our doctor La Neve also certifies it. The coach calls me a coward, he thinks I want to spare myself. But it`s not like that. Moral of the story: I`m out in the league for all of December. I return in January against Ternana.”
Then there`s the bench against Lazio in April. “It had also happened the Sunday before. In that case, I exaggerated. There was a very tense relationship between us, which was not good for anyone and which then exploded dramatically the following year, costing us a league title already won. It all starts in the interval of Lazio-Juventus on March 7, 1976. It was a bad day for me, as captain, games where nothing goes well for you. I asked to be substituted, I thought it would do the team good. And so it was, Bobo Gori came on in my place. That gesture was misinterpreted by Parola, who benched me for the next game against Milan, giving me the last twenty minutes. The real break-up occurred the following week. We play in Cesena and the coach puts me out again. At that point, I ask for explanations, I was the captain.”
And he? “He answers me badly. And I tell him to go to hell. I watch the game with Cesena from the stands. Then a few days later I explode and say clearly and unequivocally that I no longer want to have anything to do with Parola. I end up `out of the squad`. I go out of the team with Juve five points ahead of Torino. On the thirtieth matchday, the “Granata” win the league title. If we lost a league title already won, the responsibility is certainly not mine who remained out in the last nine games. The culprits are those who thought they had already won.”
And Boniperti in all this story? “He could have intervened in my defense, if he had wanted to. Instead, he told me: `Let`s finish the league season, then we`ll talk about it`. He too was sure of the final outcome. At the end of the season, we saw each other. He asked me to stay, Doctor Giuliano, his right-hand man, also did it several times. But by then it was too late. The conditions were no longer there. Better to close.”
Was it a bitter farewell? “Without a doubt. I only asked to be sold to a team that didn`t have to fight to stay in Serie A.”
He thus left Juve after eight years. A curiosity: how did he arrive at Juventus? “My purchase in 1968 had been sensational. I was already Inter`s. After my first season in Serie A with Varese in 1967-68, in which I had scored eleven goals, Inter approached with Italo Allodi. He was a very close friend of Casati, Varese`s Sporting Director. Imagine: they even went on vacation together with their families. They shook hands and closed the deal.”
Happy? “Very happy! At twenty years old, I was going to a great team, and then Milan was close to Varese, where Anna lived with whom I had meanwhile become engaged. There was a friendly at the end of the season between Inter and Roma. Inter asked Varese for permission to let me play. During the interval, Mario Brogini, a photographer friend from Varese, who had come to take the first photos with the new jersey, came to meet me. He was the one who gave me the news about Juventus.”
Did he also reveal the details? “I don`t remember if it happened on that occasion. Lawyer Agnelli and Varese president Borghi agreed directly. In addition to the money (660 million lire, ed), the supply of refrigerator compressors for Ignis, Borghi`s company, also entered the deal. I know that Allodi got angry with Casati, but he certainly couldn`t have gone against his boss.”
And him in all this? “I remained stunned. I was a bit sorry not to go to Inter, because it meant moving away from Varese. But I was over the moon because I was wearing the jersey of the team I had always been a fan of, and still am today. In my wallet, I still keep the photo taken at Cibali with the great Charles. A dream was coming true.”
From the dusty fields of Sicily to Juve. “Football has always been at the top of my thoughts. I was the youngest of four brothers, there was school, I liked the sea, I did small jobs like butcher`s boy or tinsmith. But the dream was to become a footballer and wear the black and white jersey.”
What were the fundamental steps? “The beginnings at the San Filippo Neri oratory in Catania. For everyone, I was Pietro `U turcu` because in the summer I became black as pitch. Then Trinacria and finally Massiminiana. I owe everything to Renzo Vellutini, who convinced the Massimino brothers to take me in 1964: at sixteen I debuted in Serie D. Two years later I was already in Serie B.”
And how did Varese scout him in Sicily? “By chance. Varese Sporting Director Casati was at Cibali to watch Catania-Varese. He should have left with the team, but he gave his seat on the plane to a pregnant woman. The postponement of the return flight allowed him to follow the next day, again at Cibali, Massiminiana-Paternò. Even if it ended 0-0, he saw me and took note. I was happy because I was going to Serie B at eighteen, I would have had a good showcase and some more money. But I was scared, because I was going far away for an adventure that could have ended immediately. My parents accompanied me to Varese. At the moment of farewell, they cried. I managed to hold back the tears, also because from the first impact I had the feeling of being in a family. Shortly after I met Anna, who certainly facilitated everything. The two years in Varese were splendid. Also for the sporting results, of course.”
Does he remember them? “The first year we won promotion to Serie A. The following year Varese had an exceptional league season, beating many big teams. We were a good team with champions like Armando Picchi, experienced people like Sogliano, Da Pozzo, Maroso and young people like myself and Franco Cresci. The coach was Bruno Arcari: he taught me a lot, especially how to move in attack.”
Useful teachings, given the eleven final goals. “For me, it was a fantastic season. The icing on the cake was the hat-trick in the 5-0 against Juventus, a result that went down in Varese history. And then the most beautiful gift: the call-up to the national team for the European Championship. Everything happened quickly. The sensational move to Juve, the national team jersey. I was over the moon, a dream to be there with Zoff, Rivera, Mazzola, Gigi Riva.”
In the final against Yugoslavia, he is in attack, on his debut. “We were in the locker room, Valcareggi calls me and says: `Picciotto, it`s your turn!` And he adds nothing else. I play alongside Prati. Yugoslavia is stronger, and we draw, thanks to a Domenghini free kick in the final. The regulations at that time provided for a replay of the game. It is replayed two days later, Valcareggi changes half the team. I am confirmed and next to me is Gigi Riva.”
Riva opens the scoring and he, at the half-hour mark, scores a spectacular overhead kick goal: all intentional? “It has always been said that I mistimed the stop. Maybe, I don`t remember. I know I scored a beautiful goal and that I was beside myself with joy. Even today, that Roman night with the Olympic Stadium illuminated by torches gives me goosebumps. We won the European Championship, the only one in our honors list, and they appointed us Knights of the Republic. For me, who was twenty years old and not yet of age (at the time, the age of majority was twenty-one, ed), they made an exception.”
Let`s go back to the “mistimed” stop: sometimes critics have emphasized certain alleged technical shortcomings. “The best answer was given by Boniperti. He said that I was too fast. It often happened that I anticipated the ball. But it remained there, between my feet. And I, at that point, could make the desired play.”
From a tactical point of view, however, has he always considered himself a center-forward? “I often played with the number nine, but I never played as a center-forward. I liked to widen the play, roam, serve my teammates. Bettega`s famous backheel goal at San Siro, comes from my assist after a dribble in the area. I have been a false nine. I see myself a lot in Tévez, who comes out to take the ball and often plays as a playmaker.”
Let`s close the national team parenthesis with his withdrawal from the 1970 Mexico World Cup. “It is still today one of my greatest regrets. And all for a silly thing. I was joking with our masseur Spialtini. He was sitting on the sofa, I was behind him. At one point he, impatient and after having told me several times to stop, hits me with the back of his hand and hits me in the testicles. Immediate pain, but the thing ends there. During the night, I was in the room with Furino, I can`t take it anymore from the pain, while the hit testicle has swollen frighteningly. Doctor Fini gives me a painkiller, but we have to rush to the hospital. The situation is serious, I can run the risk of amputation if they don`t operate on me instantly to absorb the internal effusion. We were on the eve of departure for Mexico. I couldn`t make it. But there they messed up big time, calling two strikers in my place, Boninsegna and Prati, and sending away Lodetti who still curses me. It was a stupidity, moreover Prati never played. I then did a bit more with the national team. I was also in Munich in 1974, but there the team was not there.”
It`s time to go back to talking about Juventus. We stopped at the account of the purchase. “The first impact with the black and white world was instructive. It was summer and I went to headquarters to meet for the first time with the new managers not thinking about the dress code. I had a t-shirt and a normal pair of trousers. President Catella told me: `Next time, present yourself in a jacket and tie.`”
And on the field, how did it go? “The debut was exceptional. In Bergamo, against Atalanta, we draw 3-3. I score a brace and one of the two goals I think is one of the most beautiful scored with Juve. Double lob over the opponents and powerful left foot before the ball touches the ground, all at great speed.”
Coach that year, 1968-69 season, was Heriberto Herrera. “A very rigid, obsessive man. He inspired fear, especially in front of the scales. He gave fines to those who went wrong with their weight. I remember that Haller and Piloni were among the most terrified because they tended to gain weight even eating very little. During one of the first training sessions, he treated me very badly in front of my teammates. We were doing a tactical session, I was not used to certain methods. At one point he says to me: `Enough, cone (stupid, ed), go out`. He sent me away and let Zigoni in in my place to show me how the movement should be done. Tears came to my eyes from anger.”
The following year there was the brief reign of Luis Carniglia. “He had the vice of speaking ill of us players behind our backs. I don`t have a good memory of him. Nor did the club, given that they fired him almost immediately. In his place, they called Ercole Rabitti, who coached the youth teams. From there, things started to go for the better, even if that was a Juve that was not fighting for the league title.”
The turning point was in the summer of 1970. “The foundations were laid for the Juventus that then dominated in the following fifteen years. Many young people were bought, some like Causio and Bettega returned from loans. Boniperti, who was not yet officially president but already had management duties, and Italo Allodi were the creators of the project.”
And as coach, the young Armando Picchi was chosen, his teammate in Varese. “Allodi knew him very well, he knew that he had all the qualities to lead a young and important team like Juventus. In the year in Varese, I had been amazed by his grit, clarity of thought and great charisma, as well as human qualities. Finding him as coach was a pleasure.”
No embarrassment? “No, even if in private I addressed him informally and in public formally. Too bad that destiny with him was so unkind. We knew everything, it was very hard in those months to continue thinking about football. Cestmír Vycpalek, the new coach, was good at keeping the group united, and the presence of Italo Allodi, a great manager, was very important.”
A bit forgotten, right? “Very forgotten, but this is the old vice of our world. Without taking anything away from Boniperti, Allodi had great merits in the rebirth of Juve. When things were not going well or there was a need to cement the group, he organized dinners, often with families. Once it happened after Carmignani`s blunder against Cagliari (the black and white number one let an innocuous ball slip out of his hands, ed). Everyone at dinner and he giving the goalkeeper pliers as a gift. Genius. He intervened on bonuses. At Juve, salaries were not better than other teams, but if you won, then a lot of money came. At that time for each point they gave 80,000 lire per player. Well, he arrived and said: `If you beat Milan, there are 800,000 lire for each one`. Let`s be clear: the sportsman always wants to win, but certain stimuli are very important.”
Allodi`s strategies worked, in 1972 Juve wins the league title. “My first league title, the one I am most attached to. Also because after the illness that struck Bettega and kept him out for half the season, I felt much more responsible. Towards the end of the season there was also the serious mourning of Vycpalek, who lost his son victim of a plane crash.”
That league saw a great Torino as your opponent. Does he have any particular memories? “The most important memory was left to me by Cereser, who kicked me on my right hand, at the height of the ring metacarpal, which is in fact tucked inwards. He from behind gave me the paw swipe.”
The following year, 1972-73 season, you do the repeat. “We won the league title on the last day. The real shock was given to us by Verona who were beating league leaders Milan. We too in Rome were down by a goal. In the interval, inside the locker room, we looked each other in the eyes. No speeches, only the awareness that we could do it. Indeed, that we had to do it. It went like that, 2-1 for us and in the end another league title.”
There has been some talk about that game. “But let`s leave it! We knew that to reach the goal we only had to win. The decisive stimulus was the news from the Bentegodi stadium. And then, if we go to see the goals, what`s wrong? Could the Roma defense have done differently on Altafini`s header? And on Cuccureddu`s bomb in the top corner? It was a clear victory. If anything, there was another problem. It concerned Vycpalek. Before the Roman trip, also to defuse the tension, someone from us said: `Coach, on Sunday we can`t win: we wouldn`t be able to carry you in triumph`. And he: `But on Sunday I will be as light as a dragonfly.`”
Earlier he mentioned Altafini, who came to Juve in that season: how was his arrival received? “Well, really. Josè was a true champion, capable of being decisive even playing little. He fitted in very well in the team and then that was a really solid group characterized by great personalities.”
Does he have any curious episodes that come back to mind? “I think of Helmut Haller, a Neapolitan German, playful and joking. Sometimes he carried with him that balloon that when sitting on it emits noises similar to farts. It was one of his favorite pastimes. Without forgetting the fashion challenges between Causio and Damiani. We made them parade in the locker room and then we gave votes.”
1973 is also the year of the European Cup final lost by his Juventus against Ajax. “A great pity. They were certainly stronger. We went into retreat for too long. In addition, there was also a change of formation that did not convince us. Cuccureddu out and Altafini in. But the thing that hurt us most was seeing how they treated the cup once they got on the bus. They threw it there, on the seats, as if it were any trophy.”
In 1975 his third league title arrives, then the following year the farewell. “I went to Inter. Two so-so leagues, but in the first season, we won the Italian Cup. There are people who have been many years longer than me at Inter without winning anything.”
Finally, there is Ascoli and above all a date: December 30, 1979. “And who forgets it? We play in Turin against Juventus. Before the game, lawyer Agnelli comes to greet me, a great honor for me. I am chasing my hundredth goal in Serie A. It seems like a curse, they have already disallowed a couple in the previous days. After eight minutes, I beat Zoff with a header and the whole Comunale applauds me. As if I had never left.”