The former goalkeeper: “I’ve had 11 surgeries, the first one because of Baggio. In the pouring rain in Perugia, I joked around and stopped every shot against Juve. My first coach was Buffon’s dad; I used to have lunch at his place.”

Andrea Mazzantini belongs to the “Nietzschean” school of thought. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” He learned this the hard way—with broken ribs and a fractured sternum—from Venice to Perugia. “For ten years, I dove to my left using both hands, never just one. No one ever asked why.”

“It was Baggio’s fault. Because of one of his feints, I tore my rotator cuff. It was October 27, 1993, the Venezia vs. Juve match in the Coppa Italia. That was the first of eleven surgeries. I played with a broken sternum, a shoulder that was only half-working, and even without being able to breathe. It happened during a Fiorentina vs. Perugia match in Serie A.”

Did you ever think about quitting?

“Yes, especially because in 1995, still in Serie B and against Avellino, I dislocated my collarbone. I told Zamparini I’d work in his warehouses, but he turned me down.”

What made you decide not to give up?

“My stubbornness. I started at Canaletto. The coach was Giancarlo Buffon, Gigi’s dad, who played forward and wasn’t very good. I used to have lunch at their house. Those are fond memories, as are the years I spent working my way up through the Prima Categoria and Promozione leagues.”

Why did it take you a while to break through?

“I was a physically strong goalkeeper, but raw and on the short side—I’m barely over 1.80. I used to help my parents at the family grocery store. Then Claudio Onofri had me try out for Pro Patria in C2, and that was my turning point. It was 1987. It was a formative yet tragic year—I witnessed death on the field. Andrea Ceccotti, my teammate, collapsed and died during a match against Treviso. I still think about it.”

My first big break came in Venice, in Serie B.

“I played all the time. Zamparini would bring shamans to training camp to ward off the evil eye. One day, a few teammates and I snuck off to the casino. The president slapped us with a hefty fine. Vieri was there too—a gruff but good-hearted guy with whom I once got into a heated argument, complete with harsh words. I’ve always been quick to lose my temper…”

What incident best sums you up?

“Perugia vs. Venezia, the third-to-last matchday in Serie B, 1996. Allegri caught me off guard on a last-minute penalty kick, but at the end of the game, some thug walked up to Fogli, the captain, and punched him. He reacted by punching him back. He was the leader of the riot police; I got a four-match suspension.“

Then you went to Inter. How did that deal come about?

”Ferruccio Mazzola mentioned me to Sandro. During those two and a half years, I trained as hard as I could, pushing Pagliuca to his limits. He’s always acknowledged that. I only played four games, including a derby, but I was lucky enough to witness a phenomenon: Ronaldo.”

Tell us an anecdote.

“By his fifth step-over, I was telling him to go to hell, but once I made a save… backwards, with my head. ‘Ronni, go to h…,’ I told him after yet another feint, and he just laughed. So I threw myself at the ball with the back of my head and blocked it. When they practiced free kicks, it was quite a show. ‘If you miss, you’ll be left naked.’ Once the striptease started: nobody scored.”

Who encouraged you to go to Perugia in ’99?

“Bergomi and Pagliuca. ‘You’re not a backup,’ they said. I chose number 35, and Mazzone was baffled. ‘Hey, you’re a goalkeeper. You have to play with number one…’”

Your best moment in Umbria?

“The 2-1 win over Milan on December 23, 2000. Gaucci invited us to his place for New Year’s Eve; he talked about a big bonus, but in the end, nothing—just fireworks…”

And the most tense one?

“The eve of the Perugia-Juve match, May 2000. The year before, we’d been the deciding factor in Milan’s Scudetto win, and Gaucci didn’t want any suspicions to creep in. That week, he kept a tight rein on everything. There were spies, people undercover. If we’d lost, he would’ve sent us to a training camp in Asia, but I saved every shot. Before heading back out into the downpour, I went to Collina with a hair dryer in my hand. “Shall we dry it off like this?” I said, laughing.”

A couple of snapshots to describe Gaucci?

“To him, I was the union rep. He was a good guy who knew how to be mean. He fired Ahn because he’d scored against Italy; he demanded that Dellas get off the bus because he’d made a deal with Roma. And the training camps were like military camps—there was a lot of tension.”

But some great players came through as well.

“I remember Nakata—a golden guy. Once, after an argument, he apologized by bringing me a case of gel. And then there were Rapaic, Grosso, Materazzi, but also Ma Mingyu, who was signed by mistake. He was a real character—he looked like a tourist; they called him ‘Grandpa.’ Finally, Mazzone, who wanted to bring me to Brescia but Gaucci said no, and Cosmi. We’re friends now, but we had so many arguments in the beginning.“

Have you ever been close to joining a top club?

”Sensi proposed a trade with Antonioli to Gaucci. I was supposed to be the third-string goalkeeper at Euro 2000, but in the end, Zoff preferred Antonioli, who played for Roma.”

In 2004 came the final blow: the car accident that ended his career.

“It was meant to be. I’d just signed with Siena at age 33 and turned down Besiktas. I was driving toward the beach when a girl ran a stop sign and hit me head-on. I lost sensation in my cervical vertebrae, C5 and C6. No one would clear me to play anymore—I’d suffered too many injuries. Today I coach at Roberto Mancini’s soccer academy in Jesi, and I’m happy.”

Do you have any regrets?

“I never had the chance to be a starter for a top-tier club. They said I was worn out because I’d come charging out of the goal so desperately. But I had to strike fear into the strikers—otherwise, what’s the point of playing in goal?”