Roberto Mancini by Luca Caioli

Author:Luca Caioli
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Lazio, bologna, inter milan, football, manchester city, mancini, Sampdoria, roberto mancini, biography
Publisher: Icon Books
Published: 2012-08-21T23:00:00+00:00

He needed to be loved

A conversation with Moreno Mannini

When Mancini left Samp for Lazio, you chose to stay, and signed a three-year contract. How was that goodbye?

‘It wasn’t good, let me tell you. Things needn’t have been handled like that. Roberto had a clash with Enrico Mantovani, who was the president back then, and that’s when his idea to leave came up. And right at that very moment, Sergio Cragnotti’s Lazio made him a very, very good offer. The two things came together: a good offer from a good club, as Lazio was at the time, and the need for a change of air.’

Who didn’t handle the situation well enough? Enrico Mantovani, or Mancini?

‘Both of them, actually. Roberto and Enrico both had strong personalities: they were different, but alike in many respects. When they made a decision, it was difficult to get them to change it. I believe that departure could and should have been handled differently, in PR terms. Roberto was 32 already. Although they had their arguments, the issue should have been between them, because Mancini was a true standard-bearer for Samp.’

Still, a transfer had been on the agenda for quite some time: Arsenal, Inter, Blackburn …

‘You heard about these because, in Enrico Mantovani’s last years at Sampdoria, there was always friction between him and Roberto. When Paolo Mantovani was there, you wouldn’t hear about this stuff, because they would be played down straight away. The president would invite you over to Villa Sant’Ilario for dinner, and everything would be worked out; we would agree on the money without going through agents. He was like a father to us: he handled us as if we were his most cherished possession; he treated us as if we were his sons. And we were proud to have someone like him: good, charismatic, strong, powerful, and skilled. That’s the reason why we all stayed with the club for so many years, and no one really considered moving, even though it would have meant earning more and going to a better club.’

Was Mancini his favourite son?

‘He surely was, because he was the first to arrive when he was still a boy. Mantovani saw a promising talent in him – the footballer who could lead Sampdoria to win the championship one day, that was his dream. Roberto earned the president’s respect and Mantovani helped him grow, with love and affection.’

Moreno Mannini was a full-back also capable of playing further forwards, and the player who inherited the captain’s armband from Roberto Mancini. He was born in Imola, a little town in the province of Bologna; it was there that he ended his football career, and it is there that he lives today, working as an estate agent and managing sports businesses. He clocked up 377 appearances in a Blucerchiati jersey, scoring seven goals; then, when he left, he joined his friend David Platt for a stint of ten or so games at Nottingham Forest. But let us start by going back to 1984, the year he came to Genoa from Forli.

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