The former soccer player is now Pirlo’s assistant in the Emirates: “He learned from me… Just kidding, but I’ve never been jealous. My mother was everything to me.”

If Roberto Baronio could enter Hogwarts, he would gladly steal the “Pensieve.” The basin for reviving memories. Every now and then, he would use it for himself, fishing out postcards from Brescia or Rome, but most of the time he would help his mother, who has Alzheimer’s, whom he calls once a day to tell her the same thing: “Remember that I love you.” Baronio, 48, a former quality playmaker turned coach, dusts off the album of his life in the United Arab Emirates. Since last summer, he has been his friend Pirlo’s assistant at United FC, in the second division. How does it continue?

“We are second, one point behind. After the defeat at Sampdoria, with my dismissal after three games a few months before the playoffs, without being able to make any transfers, we needed a new adventure.”

When did yours begin?

“In 1990, when I was 12-13 years old. I used to watch Galagoal. Alba Parietti was the presenter, there was an overhead kick by Fonseca in Sampdoria vs. Cagliari, and the song Uno su mille ce la fa by Gianni Morandi. That’s when I thought, ‘I have to be the one who makes it.’”

And when did you realize you would make it?

“With Lucescu, in Brescia. He adored me and Pirlo, my lifelong friend. He called us up to the first team from the youth team. From the backyard to the jersey of a lifetime. I grew up in a humble family of workers, with a brother seven years older than me. Our first TV was black and white. Before becoming a soccer player, I also worked as a painter. You know those summer jobs to earn 50,000 lire? My brother helped me, partly because at the time, it was just me, him, and our mother at home.“

What kind of man was your father?

”He died when I was 11, on December 28, 1988. He was a cold character, a hard worker. When I made my Serie A debut with Brescia on April 23, 1995, in Bari, I wish he had been there.“

How important was your mother?

”She was everything. In the summer of 1996, before going to Lazio, I cried. I didn’t want to leave her. It took me three days to sign, even though we’re talking about a half-billion contract. In Brescia, I was earning six million. At the time, Juve and Inter wanted me, but I only found out about Lazio after everything was done. The day I left, I had four bags. I didn’t know what I was doing. I really wish she would remember that.“

What do you say to her when you hear her?

”To remember that I love her. ‘I’m Roby, your son,’ I point out on video call. She says yes and smiles. I don’t know if she really knows who she’s talking to.”

What would you like her to remember?

“That I’ve made our dreams come true.”

First in Brescia, then at Lazio.

“I think about Zeman’s training sessions, I threw up every other night after running three thousand meters. Then we ate very little: vegetables, soups, minestrone…”

And in the meantime, Pirlo was still in Brescia.

“Moratti snatched him from Parma and left him there. We grew up together: we won the U21 European Championship, shared a room, and played for Reggina in Serie A during the best year of my life, along with those with Chievo. In 2000, Milan wanted me, but I chose to return to Lazio. Who knows how it would have turned out.“ Did the constant comparison with Andrea cast a shadow over you? ”I never came close to him, never. No envy. Maybe at the beginning people talked about me more, but he wasn’t Pirlo yet. Jokingly, I tell him that he learned to be a playmaker from me. In New York, I once said to him, ‘Oh, in a few years, you’ll be my assistant.’ And he said, ‘If anything, it’s the other way around. I’ll find a team…’.

And in 2020, he called you to Juve.

“We started with the U23s and ended up in Serie A. Two titles and qualifying for the Champions League on the last day weren’t enough to stay. I would have continued.”

An anecdote about Ronaldo?

“The first month, he only said ‘hello’ to me, then one afternoon, I took a few free kicks after Pirlo. All of them were on target. He was on the sideline with Nedved and asked him if I had played. When I told him that I had shared the locker room with Couto and Conceicao, his face lit up. From that day on, he started calling me for crosses. He wanted the ball at the penalty spot so he could head it. I was sweating bullets.”

And you, on the other hand, did you have a good career?

“To be a champion, I would have had to be good at everything, not just technique. I wouldn’t have won the World Cup, but with more commitment on a daily basis, I could have done more. And sometimes I was unlucky.”

Speaking of which. What happened in Perugia with Gaucci in 2003?

“Cosmi did everything he could to get me, but he didn’t. He didn’t agree on the salary. The truth is that in the first few games, where I played badly, I had a urinary tract infection. So Gaucci went to the coach and said, ‘Either you don’t play him, or I’ll fire you.’ He didn’t call me up, I couldn’t talk to journalists. It was a kind of mobbing. Then Gaucci told Cosmi to put me on the bench and not let me play. In the end, to justify it all, he came out and said that the number 13 brought bad luck and that was why I wasn’t playing. In the end, the club decided to put a “+” between the 1 and the 3. At the end of the season, Riccardo, Luciano’s son, called me and apologized on behalf of everyone. I struggled to respond. And I left.“

It was a nightmare, like the previous season at Fiorentina with their relegation to Serie B.

”I went for Mancini, but the club was in disarray. One day, Stankovic and Mihajlovic showed up, but the deal fell through because there was no money.“

And how do you view your time with Lazio?

”I wanted to play, which is why I was always on loan. The only year I played was 2009-10, when I won the Super Cup as a starter. With Ledesma out of the squad, I was there. The funny thing is that in January I had already closed the deal with Bologna, but Lotito swore he would give me a two-year contract. ‘Come to me at the end of the transfer window and we’ll close everything’. For six months I couldn’t talk to him, he disappeared. Pastorello tried everything to contact him. But I never gave interviews, never caused controversy. That’s how it had to be.“

What would you say to the 20-year-old Baronio today?

”To do more, not to sit back. The thought ‘I’ll earn a lot anyway’ was the beginning of the end. Today, I teach young people not to look at the money.”