Former soccer player and world champion Claudio Gentile spoke about Nicolato’s Italy U21 Championship
Claudius Softformer Italy U21 coach, spoke with Free.
WORDS – “I have nothing against the person, but Nicolato had already screwed up a European Championship. Yet it stayed put and was poised to fail again. He will have very special saints in heaven. In my day, recommendations were worth more than merit. I think that around the Via Allegri in Rome everything has stayed the same. Before the European Championships, I thought: With these names, the U21s are in first place. I’m still convinced of that, it was a very strong national team. the U21 flop underlines how sick blue football is. The players are in the hands of the prosecutors and that’s their problem. I would like to understand why they have such ups and downs or why a small talent like Kean ever allowed himself to leave the U21 training camp before this ignominious European Championship… Who was he advised by? I’ve never had a lawyer. Prosecutors are ruining football. In the association, recommendations seem to me to be worth more than people’s actual merits. Everything stayed the same as when I was kicked out after leading the U21 team to win the European Championship and a historic medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Because of certain little people within the federation, I pinched my career for not putting my head down. And I didn’t listen to the invitations of some prosecutors who wanted to enforce players at the drafts. I paid dearly. I was sent away in 2006 when I was led to believe that I was Lippi’s successor. At the Olympic Games I fielded and coached six players who became world champions two years later, including Pirlo, Gilardino, De Rossi and Barzagli. I had some merit, didn’t I?».
