Mancini: “Italy must always be there at the World Cup. The European Championship is exciting”

On his fifty-eighth birthday Roberto Mancini was a guest on “Che tempo che fa” on Rai 3 together with his lifelong friend, Gianluca Vialli. The coach, who is watching the World Cup in Qatar on TV, did not hide the bitterness of the moment: “The fact that we didn’t qualify – he underlined – we are very sorry and I hope this will never happen again so that Italy at the World it must always be there. It’s true that this is a particular World Cup, but it’s still a World Cup and it’s better to be there…”. Then the memory of the European Championships won last year: “It was a unique emotion, which arrived at a difficult time. It was no coincidence to win at Wembley after 30 years, with Luca and other players from Sampdoria who had been defeated in the final Champions from Barcelona. A circle has come full circle: that victory contained something important also for the Sampdoria fans. In Genoa we had lived special years, in a special team and I love Gianluca more now than when we were younger”.

VIALLI TELLS

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Vialli was also present on Rai 3. The twins of Sampdoria’s goal, now together in the national team, have now also been reunited in Marco Ponti’s docu-film “The beautiful season” which tells the story of Sampdoria’s golden times and friendship between the two Dorians. There are not only images from the Scudetto year, but also recent memories such as the hug after the European Championship victory. “It’s not just the diary of a sporting season, that of the tricolor – Vialli explained -, but it’s a docu-film that wants to convey the values ​​at the base of that culture that led us to win. The hug after the victory of the “European? Everything was in it: the sporting aspect, the joy for a new goal achieved, but also the fear that had conditioned both of us because of my health conditions. Those tears are for all of this. And it was more ‘ nice of the hugs when I passed him the ball and he scored. A beautiful moment of sharing with Roberto: there was friendship, love and tears full of many things inside. At Sampdoria ours was an exceptional story in a club extraordinary. And it’s good to still be together and friends.”