Tomorrow Ottavio Bianchi will turn 80. A former footballer and above all a football coach, at the helm of the Napoli di Maradona made history: he won the first title in the 1986-87 season, the Coppa Italia the same year and also a triumph in UEFA Cup, in 1988-89.
The former Brescia coach was interviewed by The morning.
"How will I celebrate? By staying home with my children. - he said -. It's been 80 years, it's a long time, but I don't think about it.
In Naples I learned the motto 'San Gennà, futtetenne' and it often comes to mind. The years have flown by, it seems like yesterday that I went to the Giornale di Brescia printing shop to see my father who had me preview the next day's newspaper.
I would immediately go and read the scores from the sports pages."
"Without football I would have been an accountant, but that passion for football overwhelmed me. - he continued talking about his childhood -. Journalists like my father? I didn't get along very well with them, except with a few.
My teacher, Bruno Pesaola, told me to make fun of them, but I couldn't invent anything. Instead, I responded bluntly."
"Winning the Scudetto with Napoli was the best sporting day of my life?
No, it was when I returned to the field after a cruciate ligament injury at 17, a Brescia-Como match.
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In those months of hospital and rehabilitation I became Ottavio Bianchi".
"Living in Naples has been the greatest gift life has given me," he continues. "There isn't a day that goes by that I haven't learned something from the Neapolitans, a people who never get ahead of themselves, never complain about anything, and who know how to enjoy life.
An extraordinary city, I learned so many lessons not only as a coach, but also as a parent."
"Maradona? Managing him was very simple, the problem was having to deal with those who thought they were Maradona, those were real problems. - he adds -. Once at San Siro, before a match against Inter, I won a juggling contest with a lemon against him.
All year he asked me for a rematch, which I never granted him: I knew full well that he would massacre me."
"The best team I've ever seen play? Cruijff's Ajax, universal players capable of playing all roles.
I was enchanted by it - concludes -. And Garcia's Napoli? It's too early to judge, as my teachers used to say, so few games are not enough.
I learned everything from them, every day, every situation. You can't like or dislike a team after a month."
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