The former owner told Unione Sarda: “I should never have taken Brescia, he was born on the 17th and I didn’t know that. Max has an extra gear, but he never wanted to learn English and always chose the easy way out.”
Massimo Cellino speaks out again. The former owner of Brescia, relegated to Serie C after being penalized for using non-existent tax credits (acquired from the Alfieri Group, Cellino claims he was defrauded), said in a long interview with Unione Sarda: “The devil has taken a liking to a city where blasphemy is widespread: I have never tolerated it. My misfortune was the tail of the devil.“
Cellino recounted the story of the chapel built in the Brescia sports center. ”Let’s just say I paid dearly for it. They explained to me that the devil persecutes those who do something important for the Church. I built it because I had made a vow to the Immaculate Conception in the event of promotion to Serie A. And when I go to Brescia, the first thing I do is go and pray in that chapel.“
Cagliari and Allegri — Cellino also spoke about his 22 years as president of Cagliari: ”I miss Cagliari because it represented my youth, the best and hardest years of my life, but only good memories. Now there is no longer the soccer we know, for which we went to see our teams at the stadiums. The system has collapsed, and those who run the Federation have devastated soccer. And those who stand in their way are overwhelmed and destroyed. I like to play at tables where there is no cheating.” Allegri’s launch is also part of the Cagliari experience: “He is still one of the best in the world, but his limitation is that he is very provincial and never wanted to learn English and never wanted to compare himself: he has an extra gear, but he always chose the easy way out.”
Resentment— It ended badly with Brescia. “Signing him was my biggest mistake,” explains Cellino. “I signed him in 2017 because I was tempted at first. I was convinced that it was a much more organized club: coming from England, I thought that in Italy I would spend one day a month compared to Leeds. Instead, I realized that there were many more debts than they had told me: there were 12 million in VAT debts, and they asked me for them the day after I arrived. I managed to get promoted to Serie A, then Covid hit: there was so much malice, so much wickedness, I can’t understand it. The place is evil. If a club has spent ten years in Serie A in 115 years (Brescia has spent 33), it’s not Cellino’s fault. There’s something evil there, and Brescia’s birthday is July 17: if I had known, I would never have bought it.” On July 17, the new club (Union Brescia), chaired by Giuseppe Pasini and playing in Serie C, was presented. Cellino said he was “the victim of a series of negative circumstances with Sampdoria, which must not be relegated because it has $200 million in debt and guarantees with banks and with the Federation, which improperly registered it the previous year. Mine is misfortune, it was the devil’s tail.“
The attempted kidnapping— Cellino revealed how, at the age of 22, he was forced to move to Australia after an attempted kidnapping. ”They tried to kidnap me in Viale La Plaia on February 23, 1978, as I was returning home from the office. There were three armed people with machine guns pointed at me. I ran away, they shot at the car: my father sent me to Australia, moving the whole family out of Sardinia, where only he remained with my mother and Alberto, my younger brother. They lived with the Carabinieri in their house.”
