ROME - With televised repeats of old matches losing their
appeal after almost two months of coronavirus seclusion, Italian
football fans have switched to social media to check in on their
favourite stars.
Veteran coach Marcello Lippi and his former captain Fabio Cannavaro
have had a public chat on Instagram, revealing what went on behind
the scenes during the penalty shoot-out against France when Italy won
the 2006 World Cup.
"I had always told you I was the sixth shooter," said Cannavaro, a
star central defender who in the same year won the Ballon d'Or but
was not known for his spotkicks.
The 72-year-old Lippi, who in November resigned as coach of China,
recalled how, "after looking around," he picked lanky left-back Fabio
Grosso for the decisive fifth penalty - thus not needing to risk
Cannavaro's shortcomings from the spot.
Marco Materazzi had levelled the scores at 1-1 in normal time and was
then famously headbutted by Zinedine Zidane.
Materazzi was also on a recent webchat set up by his ex-Inter Milan
team-mate Christian Vieri. He was invited to recall punching Siena's
Bruno Cirillo in the face in the tunnel in 2004 - which earned him an
eight-game ban.
"[Coach Alberto Zaccheroni] Zac looked at me in the changing room and
said: 'I want to hope it didn't happen,'" Materazzi recalled, "and I
looked back at him and said: 'It did happen'."
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by 🇮🇹Fabio Cannavaro🇮🇹(@fabiocannavaroofficial) on Apr 26, 2020 at 10:42am PDT
In an earlier chat, Materazzi had also discussed beating up then
Inter team-mate Mario Balotelli after a game at Barcelona, which,
however, did not dent his friendship with the current Brescia
striker.
Vieri, one of Italy's best strikers in the 1990s and early 2000s, has
had up to 50,000 followers for his chats with retired aces such as
Brazil's Ronaldo, Francesco Totti, Antonio Cassano, Sebastian Veron,
Paolo Maldini, Andrea Pirlo and veteran MotoGP star Valentino Rossi.
But Nicola Ventola, another former Inter forward often hosted by
Vieri, confessed that only 2% of footballers' stories are fit
to be told in public.
Active Italian footballers, meanwhile, are doing their best to
entertain social media watchers while they try to stay fit and in
form in living rooms or gardens. A government lockdown could be eased
from May 4, and clubs hope for a possible restart of the season
behind closed doors by early June.
Balotelli has posted a video of his deft control of a mini-ball, only
to get a mixed review from Fabrizio Miccoli, a retired striker turned
wine maker.
"Not bad," commented Miccoli, "you could possibly challenge me."
In his videos, Miccoli is on his terrace, doing freestyle tricks
before kicking the ball into a basketball hoop, and filling, with his
wine, a glass balanced on his foot.
Silly videos will continue to cheer up Italian fans in the coming
weeks but what they really crave is live football.