Beppe Signori after the grace: “I want to train, I still feel young”

Gabriele Gravina, president of the Federcalcio, signed a “pardon” on Saturday 1 June for Giuseppe Signori, the former forward from Bologna, Sampdoria, Lazio and Foggia, who was disbarred for a betting affair. The “rehabilitation” measure came after the 53-year-old was acquitted from ordinary justice and was the result of a federal process concluded by a legal opinion from the FIGC office. Now Beppe can return to work in the world of football.

In the meantime, gentlemen, a long interview with Giorgio Burreddu de was told The paper: “It was hard. I will never forget that 1st June 2011. I remember the policemen who came to pick me up in civilian clothes in Termini, the TV giving the news and I turning it off and maybe to hurt myself I turned it on again. I’ve seen people change their eyes. They ask me if anyone has disappointed me. No, I knew that whoever was there would stay and whoever had doubts would go away. It was a natural selection. But it wasn’t easy. Dad and mom have experienced unpleasant situations, also because living in a small town… Written on the walls. ‘Executioner gentlemen’. And now the same people who had changed their gaze say ‘I knew it’. But did you know what? For a long time my wife and I had doorbell syndrome. Who is, who is, who is. Maybe he was the postman, but we were afraid that he was a carabiniere or a policeman. I told my children: you must be proud of Beppe Signori as a player, but more than your father, because in the end he will be able to prove that things did not go that way. Now they are happy ”.

Then dad Beppe confided the biggest regret of his life: “It was not playing the final in USA ’94, the World Cup of change. Today in my thoughts I say to myself: I was a jerk. Once in your life you can play the final of a world championship, maybe even make the decisive goal. Play, play. It went that Roby (Baggio) got hurt with Bulgaria, he had a thigh problem, he didn’t have to play. Sacchi told me: Beppe you play with Massaro in front. Then Roby felt like it and since I told the coach I only wanted to play in front, he knocked me out. Do I think about it? I think, first of all, that I would have done well to say I play as a midfielder. Second: maybe I would have taken the penalty too, just think if I took the penalty myself ”.

The future of the 1994 world champion? “I feel twenty-five, thirty years old. Yes, it’s true: I’m 53. But you get older first with your head than with the body and the head I still feel young. The stress and the pandemic should have put me in two hundred kilos. But no. Children help you. As Zeman said: time is of the essence. For choices, for scoring goals. Ball-time. So my relationship with time is decisive, it is very close. Even in this situation, the search for a bench is important. Waiting for ten years has been tough, and yet I’m not in such a hurry. It would be wrong to go wrong just because I lost ten years. Ten or eleven, nothing changes. I believe that everyone is given the opportunity to train. It depends if I’ll be good at taking advantage of the opportunity. Being a coach is what I see myself best in. I would like to go where there is a project, perhaps from Lega Pro to A. I would struggle with amateurs, I would prefer a Primavera or perhaps an experience abroad ”.