The first goalkeeper to score from open play in Serie A: “In my dreams, I scored with an overhead kick. Shortly after, Giagnoni asked me to try again, but by then I was gasping for air…”

“No, no, no,” Giagnoni shouted at me, but I was already running straight towards the Atalanta goal…”. Michelangelo Rampulla never returned to that goal, at least not in everyone’s memory. That day, February 23, 1992, marked the first goal scored by a goalkeeper in Serie A, Cremonese drew 1-1 in the 90th minute and he became famous. He then went to Juventus, where he spent ten years, seven of them as Peruzzi’s deputy. There he met Lippi, whom he would follow to China. Today he lives in Paestum, where his wife has a restaurant, and he doesn’t always watch soccer “because it’s far from my heart, too many books, not enough practice, and Donnarumma is without a team because he has no feet, you understand?”

The goalkeeper’s goal was not written in the books…

“I started out as a striker, left wing in a modern 4-3-3 formation, what you would call a reverse footer today. Not fast, good dribbling. But my dad, a lifelong Juventus fan, talks to me about Sentimenti IV, Combi, Anzolin… I’m seven or eight years old and I want to be like Anastasi. Pietruzzo is the idol of us Sicilians, a symbol. My first coach in the youth team, in a hamlet near Patti, sees me with gloves on but tells me, ‘You go up front.’ But I…”.

But what about you?

“I told him, ‘Coach, my dad won’t let me.’ He’s a literature teacher, he knows my dad because we live in a village of 500 people, and he knows he’s a bit hot-headed. He looked at me and said, ‘Okay, go in goal.’ My dad has a black and white Seicento. We drive around in it when Juventus wins the league. The hood has black and white stripes. I still have it and I’m having it restored.“

When you scored, you must have thought of him…

”Atalanta-Cremonese, we’re down a goal, I’ve already tried to advance but I have to hurry back to goal. I saw Pagliuca try it in a Sampdoria-Torino game. There was a free kick, it was the 90th minute, I made up my mind and said to Giagnoni: ‘Coach, I’m going!’. And he said: ‘No, no, no!’. But Garzilli, my teammate, shouted: ‘I’ve got you covered’. Giagnoni spread his arms in resignation. I dream of scoring an overhead kick, but instead the ball comes to me at the far post and I head it with all my might.“

Then a mad dash.

”I don’t understand anything, I just think about getting back so as not to leave the goal empty, I almost don’t realize it’s a goal. The funny thing is that, thirty seconds later, there’s a similar situation and Giagnoni says to me: ‘Go, Miche!’. I’m gasping for breath, I can’t go on. ‘No, no, coach, let’s not tempt fate…’. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to save us. Ferron, their goalkeeper, is a friend. ‘You of all people? “Better me, I’m your friend…” Giagnoni, what kind of guy was he? “A great person, with a big heart, from another era. He arrived after Burgnich was sacked, who had a habit of allowing a glass of water and half a glass of wine with each meal. No more, no less. Maybe he remembered it from Herrera’s time, but we were thirsty after training. Giagnoni sat down at the table for the first time and saw the masseur pouring from the two bottles. ‘What are you doing? ’ They explained. And he said, ‘But these are grown men and married men. Let them drink.’

Then Fascetti.

“Decades ahead of his time. He already had technical assistants and talked about pressing. Science fiction. I used to go and watch him at the stadium when Juve gave him to Messina after signing Sivori. We were saved in Varese in 1981, and he said, ‘It’s everyone’s fault, but if you want a name, it’s Rampulla.’”

Your first memory of soccer?

“Palermo-Juve 1-1 in ’67-’68. I was five years old. And my career began in Palermo, in a four-team tournament between regions in ’79, I played for Sicily. Then there was a friendly match against Palermo with Frison and De Stefanis, we won 1-0. We were students… Coach De Luca said to me during the game, ‘What are you doing?’, and I replied, ‘I’m saving, coach, it’s my job’. I saved everything. Palermo wanted me, Favalli was in the stands, but my father said, ‘They don’t play young players, Varese does. Go there’. He was right. In September, I made my Serie B debut at 18. Back then, goalkeepers were young, up to 25, and the other players were up to 22. They changed the rules: I won the award in Serie B and Bergomi in Serie A.“

Marotta was the sporting director at Varese.

”He would say, ‘Stop, let me take a shot. He would change and come onto the pitch. He had a great left foot.“

He always had his mind on goals: at Cesena, he went to take a penalty.

”And Torresin saved it. It was a good Cesena team, with Fontana, Bonaiuti, and Seba Rossa among the young players: I trained them too. We missed four penalties in a row in the league and the coach Buffoni, desperate, said to me: ‘Are you up for it? ‘Of course! It happened against Monza, but at the last corner: something you should never do.“

Cesena, Cremonese, then Juve in ’92.

”Lazio wanted me too, it seemed done, but Juve wanted me as Peruzzi’s deputy, a monster. I met Zenga on TV and he said to me: ‘Go to Juve! Forget the rest, it’s always Juve’. Then, for a Juve fan like me… Ten games there are worth thirty elsewhere: I played 99. But the 100th for me was the Juve-Toro friendly in 1994 for the flood victims, as captain.”

Trapattoni was there right away.

“I listened to him with my mouth open, like everyone else. Before the game, he explained in detail what to do. And on the field, he played with us in the scrimmages: he was 50 years old, but wow, what determination, he still kicked the ball around.”

Lippi arrives and stays with him, even in China.

“Marcello is extraordinary. You don’t know how many games we win thanks to his motivational speeches: he gets 200 percent out of the players. In China, we’re one step away from the ‘scudetto’, we just need a draw. He explains everything to the guys, but after eight seconds we’re behind. At half-time, he returns to the dressing room furious. Vincenzo, the translator, tries to speak in Chinese, but he says, ‘Shut up! They understand me perfectly in Italian!’ He shouts and smashes, or rather, shatters the whiteboard with a karate kick, and the boys are terrified. They come back, we draw, and the title is ours.”