Pagliuca's style

Bolognamania, October 2001. Daniele Fontana.

Telling the story of a star of Gianluca's caliber means rewriting the most important pages of national and international football history of the last decade. His long and prestigious career is a succession of brilliant and exciting landmarks that few football champions can boast. Remember the national championship won at Genoa with Sampdoria, the victory in Cupwinner's Cup, still with Sampdoria, the UEFA Cup with Inter, the second place at the World Cup in USA in 1994 - but this does not tell us everything about Gianluca.

Pagliuca like Zoff! At forty, still in the goal and then a coach - how do you like this idea?
I like the idea, but I think that nowadays playing at forty is practically impossible. The game has changed a lot since Zoff's days, it has become quicker, and compared to the past, the clubs are more eager to bring out new players. I really think that in two or three years I will hang the gloves up and start the coaching career.

Have you already started preparing for your new career?
Yes, I've taken a third category course, and thanks to that, I could already coach an amateur team. The next courses, for the second and first category, I will only be able to take when I stop playing. My intention is to become a Serie A coach, but I'm convinced that in order to come to this task prepared I will need experience in the lower leagues.

At age thirty-four you are in great shape, but how much does it cost you to keep it up?
Nothing, because I'm still having fun playing. I'm not tired of going to practice, because I still feel the same as 10 years ago. The only thing that "worries" me is finding gray hairs on my comb every once in a while.

In your opinion, how many people in the world know your name?
I don't know, but I think there are many people, in part because the World Cup in America gave me a lot of notoriety. A curious thing: getting ready for the TV transmissions, many commentators would say "Gianluca Pagliuca" instead of the usual "one, two, three - testing".

Name a professional defect that you have not been able to fix.
There isn't one in particular. Maybe, but I wouldn't call it a defect, it's something common to all goalkeepers, I dive worse to one side than on the other, and it's the left side. But by now, with practice, I have managed to eliminate the difference almost completely: and proof of that is that I've been able to stop a number of penalties on that exact side.

And your biggest advantage?
Surely the evenness of my game and the explosive force in my legs. Even now, at my age, I have maintained these qualities unchanged and I can assure you that not all can do it.

Once, a good goalkeeper was the one who knew how to make a save; is it the same now?
No, modern football has new demands and today the goalkeeper, besides knowing how to make a save, must be good at restarting the action. Before it was more simple, because the ball was passed back to you and you could pick it up with your hands, now you must be good at kicking it out with your feet as well.

In your long career, have you ever been the target of malicious criticism?
I've received my share of criticism, but it was never malicious. I would say that in my career there was more joy and satisfaction, given and received.

Gianluca, let's go back in time. Please tell us about the dreams of young forward Pagliuca who wore the yellow shirt of Ceretolese.
I wasn't bad as a half-winger and I often dreamed of becoming a professional player, but I never thought I'd be a goalkeeper. Then, by chance, our starting goalkeeper had some health problems and I tried to stand in for him, and did well right away. I continued to switch between playing in attack and in goal, then after a couple of years I decided to put on the number 1 shirt for good, and it was the right choice.

What did mama Rosa say to you?
That I studied too little and that I did not want to hit the books.

I have read in your biographies that you went around ringing doorbells in Casalecchio and Ceretolo. Were you a little pest?
Yes, a little pest, but I was not alone. There were so many of my friends, and besides the doorbells we also liked to let air out of tires.

How did you feel when Bologna's ex-keeper, Battara, decided that you could join Bologna's youth team?
It was a great feeling! I remember that it was 1982 and Italy had just won the World Cup in Spain. When Bologna took me, unfortunately, Battara was already gone, but a few years later I was working with him again at Sampdoria.

In 1986, Sampdoria's president Mantovani buys you from Bologna for 300 million lira. Was it hard for you to leave your city, your first affections, or did you look forward to it?
At first it was hard, because I didn't want to leave my home and my mother and my friends. After a couple of hard months, though, I settled in all right. I got a girlfriend and so, completely in love, started to live happily in Genoa, and didn't want to run back to Bologna anymore.

What was it like, living in the ligurian city at twenty?
I lived at Bogliasco, close to the sea, and the training center was really close to my house. I liked the place very much, so much that in all those years in Genoa I hardly left it, except to go get my salary. After three and a half years, we parted ways with the girl that I had met in the beginning, so I remained single for the rest of my time at Sampdoria, and I had so much fun. The player that I was best friends with at the time was Marco Lanna, but I'm still good friends with Katanec and Victor also.

You spent eight seasons in Genoa, winning the championship, the Cupwinners' Cup, and the Italian Supercup. What did it feel like, winning so much with a "provincial" team?
I was immensely satisfied. Sampdoria had never won much before, and it's extremely difficult do describe the emotions that the players and the whole city felt when we won these prestigious competitions. That was a great team, with very good players like Vierchowod, Mancini, Vialli and an exceptional coach, Vujadin Boskov.

After the Sampdoria experience, you started another important chapter of your career with Inter, where you won the UEFA Cup. What were those years like?
I felt marvelous! Those five years were intense and beautiful for me professionally and personally, even though I "only" won the UEFA Cup and missed the championship by a hair. In Milan, I lived in Corso Magenta, one of the most beautiful parts in the center and also in Milan I met Aurora, my fiancée. I was on good terms with all my teammates and I'm still in contact with people I met there outside the world of football.

Third keeper at Italy '90, the final in USA '94 and the bitter elimination in the quarterfinals of France '98. Which of the three championships is most memorable to you?
Surely the final of USA '94. To almost touch the world title is something very few have done, and it's an experience that one is not likely to live through again. Winning the World Cup is every football player's dream and when I realized that day that I probably wouldn't have another chance at it, I felt an indescribable disappointment. It's a wound that has never gone away.

In 1999 you find yourself back in your city, which you had left so young. Is this a dream finally come true?
Certainly. I had only played in Bologna's youth team, while with the main team I was third goalkeeper, behind Zinetti and Cavallieri. Coming back to play in my hometown was a very emotional thing, and I have to thank Cinquini for managing to arrange my transfer. At that time, I was wanted by a number of clubs, and I thought I would go abroad to play, but when I found out that Bologna was interested, I dropped all other contacts. Bologna was my hometown, it was the best, it was a dream that was finally coming true!

In June 2002 your contract runs out. What then?
At this point, I can't say anything, it's too early. When it expires, we'll look at it all together, and if the club decides to give younger players a chance, I will step aside and look at other possibilities.

Even abroad?
I don't exclude that.

Even though you have just moved into a new home with Aurora?
I have said that I don't exclude it, not that I'm leaving. How can I know today what we'll decide in June? But of course I want to stay in Bologna.

And when will you become a dad?
Soon, very soon, and I hope that it will be a boy, so I can put the gloves on him soon after. My dream is for him to be even better than his dad...

Does that mean he'd have to win the World Cup?
Maybe!

translation by Julia Tarasova.