Sottil and his past as a footballer: he was the defender who marked Bierhoff, then that quarrel at the end of Udinese-Atalanta

The new Juventus coach first in Florence and then in Bergamo fought with the German bomber

The new Udinese coach, before wearing the black and white shirt for four years (from ’99 to 2003) was one of the least sympathetic players (and let’s put it mildly) to Friulian fans. A little because he was always the chosen defender to mark Oliver Bierhoff, and a little because on the occasion of a Udinese-Atalanta match in May 1998, the penultimate of the championship when Oliver was not there because he was injured, he lit the fuse at the end of the match and for the fight soon escaped us. The Andrea Sottil footballer was this: when he was on the other side you couldn’t stand him, when he was on your side he became an idol. A bit like Gattuso, to make a noble comparison.

After all, the Sottil school had not been trivial: the youth sector of Turin, the club with the best nursery in Italy at the beginning of the nineties and the championship won in the ’91 -’92 season in a team that lined up Falcone, Cois among others. , Vieri people who then arrived in the national team.

With the grenade jersey Sottil also made his debut in Serie A on 6 December 1992 in a Turin-Foggia 1-1 and even in the Cup Winners’ Cup at Highbury, the historic Arsenal stadium. The coach of that Toro was Emiliano Mondonico who would have remembered him when, at Atalanta, he wanted him at all costs to reinforce the Bergamo defense. Andrea, in the meantime, had moved to Fiorentina where he had won an Italian cup in the ’95 -’96 season even though he had almost never played. Also for this reason he had moved to Bergamo where he had rediscovered the “World”.

Well the first year (tenth place), minus the second at the end of which came the relegation also caused by the defeat suffered against Friuli on the penultimate day. Udinese were fighting for third place, they didn’t take their heart out but played a serious game and in the 90th minute they found the goal with Calori. Sottil did not take it well and did not send them to tell the Juventus bench. Who knows, maybe there were some unfinished business from the first leg when Rustico, with an escarpment, hit Amoroso who for that blow was out for three months. It was a tough match in Bergamo with the hosts taking the lead after a few minutes with Gallo and the bianconeri who recovered at the beginning of the second half with a header by Bierhoff who was good at catching the time of all opponents, including Sottil, on a free kick by Statuto. Atalanta went down to Serie B at the end of that championship but failed to get back to the first shot (closed sixth). It was precisely in the summer of ’99 that Udinese, having lost the historic captain Alessandro Calori who ended up at Perugia, decided to focus on that defender of the Goddess who seemed perfect to play central in the three-man defense. Indeed it will, but this is a story yet to be told.(1st episode – continued)