The numbers 10 “they disappeared because now it's a different kind of football. It's a different vision, a different way of playing. Now the physical prevails over the technique. In the time when I played there were always, in every team in Italy or abroad, one or two players of the highest level. There were one or two potential number tens. Together they made the number twenty. We may have been lucky, but the football it was more beautiful”. He says it Francesco Totti, interviewed by Walter Veltroni for the “Corriere della Sera”.
Has everything changed with Sacchi? “You see, the number ten was a different player from the other ten. He was someone who had to run less but exploit every opportunity of talent: an assist, a volley, a difficult dribble. He had to be lucid, always fresh. For this reason, the number ten returned less. Sacchi brought everyone back to defense. And this made the technical space for the number ten disappear, considered the fulcrum of the team, the element of surprise. Football has become more organized, but less surprising”.
Did they ask you to come back? “No. The only one was Zeman, who played a Sacchi-style game. With his 4-3-3, I was expected to return. Luckily, on that wing there were Candela and Di Francesco who also ran for me.” How much do the number ten's gregarious count? “For me, the gregarious are more important than the number tens. In the ninety minutes they are decisive. Without one there would be no other. Think of Platini without Bonini, of Rivera without Lodetti. Gregario is a beautiful word, not only in cycling or football. We are all gregarious for something or someone, in life”.
Do you see a number ten in world football today? “No, it doesn’t exist anymore. That role has become extinct. And in fact I can’t find a team that excites me. But do you remember Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, the Inter of the treble?” What qualities should he have? “Technique, obviously. But above all, speed in the head. If you understand things before others, if you see the movements of your teammates, if you touch the ball one less time than necessary, you have already done your part, as a number ten. I would say that this is the characteristic: seeing first and doing first. I was lucky because I had Perrotta, Delvecchio, Di Francesco who knew and understood how I played and, in turn, knew where I would put the ball. They knew it first, too. If someone has talent, that is, anticipates the normal, the whole team moves faster”.
Article published on November 2, 2023 - 09:52
