The Manchester City manager on the footballer who died on Friday: “I met him on a golf course, he had a unique charisma. His death makes us understand how life is a coin toss. He will not be forgotten, he must be remembered as a smile”
Pep Guardiola is almost moved, thinking back to Gianluca Vialli. “It’s hard to find a more charismatic person – he said in the Etihad Stadium press room, after the FA Cup victory over Chelsea -. On behalf of City, I send a big hug to his wife and daughters”. And then he launches into a personal memory that almost comes to tears, thinking back to that meeting on a golf course and that battle with evil that Vialli lost, and “which makes you understand how life is a coin toss, that you never know what it’s going to bring out.”
NATIONAL
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Speaking of Vialli, Guardiola underlines how the experience with the national team as a manager was fundamental in the last years of the champion who died on Friday. “I want to thank the Italian Football Federation and above all Roberto Mancini, for involving him with the national team in recent years – says Pep, as the room becomes more silent than usual, enraptured by his touching memory -. I know how much it made him feel alive, how much being part of of the team that won the European Championship had made him feel still part of something important. He had a truly unique charisma, and it’s impossible to find someone who doesn’t underline it when he talks about him, as I am doing.”
GOLF
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Pep remembers the last meeting, on the golf course. “I was lucky enough to know him while playing golf, through the Vialli-Mauro foundation. And I am sure that Massimo Mauro will continue the work they did together in his memory – says Pep -. We were in Mallorca, one day we arrived at the course late , both hungry. We went to eat together: cheeses, salami, some good wine. We had a fantastic conversation. And he explained to me what he was fighting against. And now unfortunately he didn’t make it. His death makes you understand many things: I was a player too, I know how much we athletes take care of our bodies during and after our careers. But from these things you understand that all of our lives are like a coin toss, which you never know about which side it comes out”.
SMILE
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Guardiola also has a particular way of remembering Vialli: “I saw how much emotion there is for his death, both here in England and in Italy. He was a unique person and will not be forgotten. But we must remember him with a smile and without tears, because it has made our lives better. Once again, a hug to the family”. Then, with difficulty, he goes back to telling how his City beat Chelsea. On the day of remembrance on the Vialli field.
January 8 – 8.44pm
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