With the moving on of a Florentine legend this summer, it is probably right
to cast a timely and poignant look at the only other player who could
possibly beat Gabriel Batistuta in the terrace hero stakes. And although many
of the club’s younger fans think that Batigol is the best ever Viola player,
the majority of older fans would point to the one and only Giancarlo
Antognoni.

For Italian football, July 11, 1982 will be remembered forever. The years
leading up to that World Cup Final had all been shaped for that glorious day.
The 1982 tournament had seen Italy go on a wonderful run. Argentina were
beaten. The 1970 defeat by Brazil in the Final was avenged in the second
group stage. Paolo Rossi scored six breathtaking goals and who could forget
Marco Tardelli’s glorious celebration? They were all fabulous moments, all
to be stashed away for rainy day renewal. But for myself and many Fiorentina
fans, the day was mixed with sadness. One of the players who had done so much
to put Italy into the Final, the Viola’s Giancarlo Antognoni, could not
play.

Witnessing Antognoni bamboozle the Poles in the semi-final three days
previously was one of the tournament’s most abiding memories. Sadly, an old
leg injury reared it’s ugly head after the Polish match and poor Giancarlo
along with the likes of George Best, Eusebio and Jimmy Greaves became one of
the world’s best players never to play in a World Cup Final. After earning
73 caps he perhaps could have eventually overtaken Dino Zoff’s record of
112, but a series of injuries took their sad toll.

He was still only 28 when he played his last game for the Azzurri. The most
serious of those injuries that eventually affected his international career
came during a game with Genoa. Goalkeeper Martina caught the midfielder right
on the head. It left Giancarlo with a double fracture of the skull. So severe
was the collision that apart from the internal bleeding, it also caused
Antognoni’s heart to stop beating for almost half a minute. Luckily the
Tuscan terror was strong and fit and he survived to continue his glorious
career.

Born in Marsciano not far from the centre of Perugia in Umbria on April 1,
1954, Giancarlo was nobody’s fool. His first team was Serie D outfit
Astimacobi, based on the outskirts of Turin, for whom he made his debut on
his 16th birthday. He made a big impression and in that same 1970-71 season,
the blond bomber played five more times.

The following season he became a regular first-teamer, playing 22 games and
scoring three times. In 1971 he was called up into the Italian junior side
who trained at Coverciano, the Azzurri training centre in Tuscany. The centre
is little more than an Antognoni free kick away from Fiorentina’s stadium.
It was there that his elegant touch, his youthful power and his all round
athletic approach, won him a place in the team.

Naturally Fiorentina had their scouts out there in force and his ability soon
came to the attention of the then Viola Coach, Sweden’s ex-Milan star Nils
Liedholm. With big interest from several other major clubs, Liedholm
persuaded young Giancarlo over the summer of 1972, that Fiorentina were his
best bet.
Astimacobi demanded ￡150,000 and they got it. For Fiorentina it would prove
to be the best money the club has ever spent. With a reputation for a certain
Nordic coldness, Giancarlo was naturally wary of the lauded Coach. But the
pair eventually became, if not firm friends, certainly well disposed towards
each other. The Swede was beginning to heat Fiorentina up again after the
club had gone off the boil only three years after winning the League title in
1969. Yet in 1971 the Viola finished 13th, just one place above the
relegation zone.

Something needed to be done quickly and at the start of the 1972-73 season
Liedholm placed his faith in youth, pushing youngsters like Antognoni, Nevio
Scala, Domenico Caso and Moreno Roggi into the first team. A few games into
the new season, Liedholm took the blinkers off Giancarlo and let him loose on
Serie A. Making his debut at Verona on October 15, Fiorentina picked up the
points in a 2-1 win as Antognoni played a starring role. That evening over
Tuscany, there was a new planet beginning to line up in the Florentine
firmament.

That game started a love affair that blossomed with the club’s devoted and
dedicated fans. Antognoni became a bona fide thoroughbred hero to the Viola
faithful and was and still is worshipped to the beautiful blue Tuscan
heavens. They were in love with a highly gifted player, whose two magical
feet made him one of Italy’s all-time complete players. His all-round
ability to dictate play, pass with unswerving accuracy and dribble past
bedazzled defenders made him unapproachable.

He orchestrated Fiorentina’s midfield for the whole of his 15 years with the
club but a price had to be paid. The price for this one club loyalty was
wining just one Italian Cup in 1976. In those one and half decades Antognoni
played in 412 games, 341 of them in Serie A. He is fifth in the club’s all
time top scorers charts behind Gabriel Batistuta, Kurt Hamrin, Miguel
Montuori and Alberto Gallasi with 61goals.

He made his international debut as an enthusiastic 20-year-old in the 3-1
defeat by Holland in a European Nation’s Cup qualifier. Also earning his
second cap in that game was another Viola youngster, Moreno Roggi. The
Azzurri manger Fulvio Bernardini, like Fiorentina, started putting his faith
in youth, a move that saw several of Liedholm’s protégées win
international caps. He introduced several more young bloods over the next few
games and in Antognoni’s second game another Fiorentina youngster, Vincenzo
Gueri also made his debut. In amongst Bernandini’s ‘ragazzi’ at that time
were Claudio Gentile and Francesco Graziani, players who would join Antognoni
in the 1982 World Cup Finals eight years later.

Giancarlo’s last cap was awarded in the 2-0 defeat by Czechoslovakia on
November 16, 1983 but in between he captained the Azzurri four times.
Altogether he scored seven times for his country but set up many, many more.
A classical ‘regista’ he gave cohesion and quality to the Azzurri and his
undoubted playmaking ability went a long way in carrying them right to that
legendary 1982 Final.
In 1987 Antognoni accepted an offer to play for Swiss outfit Lausanne. For
the next two seasons the Swiss First Division gained many new fans as
busloads of Fiorentina supporters, unable to go long without seeing their
maestro, travelled up to see him every other week.

After two years of exile he returned to his beloved Florence to play in a
farewell game - the Italian ‘82 team versus the Rest of the World. In that
game he gave a speech to his devoted fans in the Stadio Artemio Franchi with
a voice racked with emotion. He told the crowd, of which I was fortunate to
be one of: "I could have gone to Roma or Juve, perhaps won three or four
titles, even a Champions’ Cup. But at my farewell there wouldn’t have been
40,000 people shouting their love for me. It is your love that is important,
and this is the reason I could never have thought of leaving."

The crowd, as emotional as Giancarlo, broke into spontaneous applause which
lasted a full five or six minutes. The game started with a backdrop sound
echoing round the open elements of the stadium that made it seem if three
times the amount of fans were there. Then when Giancarlo scored in the 73rd
minute from an exquisitely taken penalty, the ground simply erupted. An
unreal atmosphere of magic gripped the stadium. Waves of emotion hung in the
air and tumbled down over the terraces. Hard bitten Florentines - who have a
reputation for coldness - wept openly.

Shortly before the final whistle Giancarlo left the field also with tears
pouring from his eyes. He threw some flowers into the fanatical Curva Fiesole
and a big bunch of balloons lifted into his beautiful Tuscan sky, emblazoned
with one word, the legend, ‘Antonio.’ This is how the fans remember the
player that was Giancarlo Antognoni, a man who wore his purple heart on his
sleeve. He was their idol and a prince amongst princes.

For 15 years Antognoni was more than just a football player for Fiorentina.
He was not only the flag bearer but he was the symbol of a winner for the
fans.

Other clubs had winning teams and successful seasons in Europe. But Viola
fans had Giancarlo Antognoni, the eternal illusion of a winning future and
for those fans a quick chorus of: "Voi vincete lo Scudetto, ma noi abbiamo
Antognoni" - you may win the title but we have Antognoni - was completely
unanswerable.


STAR RATING 8/10 An idol at Fiorentina and the only man to vie with Gabriel
Batistuta as the Viola’s No 1 of all time. Also an Azzurri great.

GIANCARLO ANTOGNONI
Born: Marsciano (Perugia), 1/4/1954
Position: Midfielder
Ht/Wt: 1.79/80kg
Serie A debut: Verona 1-2 Fiorentina, 15/10/72
Clubs: Astimacobi, Fiorentina, Lausanne
International debut: Holland 3-1 Italy, 20/11/74
Last international: Czechoslovakia 2-0 Italy, 16/11/83
International caps: 73
International goals: 7

Honours:
Italian Cup 1976
World Cup 1982
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