Nedved This guy always scored against us. “We’ll buy him, so we can resolve this problem” is what I told Bettega and Giraudo in 2001. On top of being a nuisance to Juventus, Pavel Nedved was truly a great player: offensive midfielder, great technical qualities, no difference between left and right foot, great on set pieces too. All this on top of having a body that would never tire. He never stopped running, I remember we had to stop him during training, if not he would never stop. In short he was a Juve type player: all about football and family” “We decided to get Nedved since we wanted to sell Zidane to have a faster and more athletic team. Nedved was the right man for us. But bringing him to Turin wasn’t easy. The negotiation with the Lazio owned by Sergio Cragnotti went smoothly, we shook hands on 70 billion lire, with a contract signed in May of 2001. But convincing Nedved was much more difficult, he didn’t want to hear anything about joining Juve. It wasn’t a matter of money but a life choice. I called him many times, but he didn’t listen “Thank you direttore but I’m comfortable at Lazio and I’m great in Roma: I live at the Olgiata, close to the golf courses, it’s the best. My family and I have everything why should I leave?” The reasons Pavel gave me confirmed to me that behind the player there was a real man. “I knew the negotiation with Real Madrid for Zidane would end well, so we risked not getting Zizou’s replacement. So I played along and said in a press conference:” Lazio won’t sell Nedved” It wasn’t a lie since that is how things stood. I lied to myself, I knew the hunt wasn’t over. But I needed a great idea to get him to agree to the move. I called him while he was on vacation “Pavel, do me a favor, why don’t you come to Torino. I’m not telling you to necessarily come to Juve, but to at least take a look. Then if you decide to say no we are still friends. I’ll send you a private plane from Italy so nobody sees you” Pavel feel into my trap, I put the phone down and called the newspapers and televisions and told them :”Nedved is on his way” Nedved arrived the following day and as he got off the plane there were numerous reporters waiting. He asked “How could they know of my arrival?” I pretended to be angry and surprised, but inside I was overjoyed and I could already taste victory. Pavel got his smile back when we visited the Circolo Golf Torino, amongst the best golf courses in northern Italy. He was impressed by the beauty and he was closer to Juve. The rest was done by the Lazio fans who turned Pavel from a hero to a traitor after that surprising trip to Torino. He had to go through many days of protests in Rome, on July 4th he gave up :”Okay I’ll sign with Juve” It was great for us, he won almost everything at Juve, including the Ballon d’Or in 2003” Moggis book traslated by @DavidAmoyal
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 07:12:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015