Read Online I Think Therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Alciato - Free Book Online

so-called champions. For me, it’s an illness to always want more money when you’ve already got infinite riches.
    Nobody has ever tried to involve me in anything, and in that respect it was a blessing to spend so many years at Milan. Losing and drawing simply don’t enter the equation there. You go out with a single thought in your head: winning. If anyone had ever tried to get me involved in shit like that, I would have kicked them into the middle of next week. I’m not normally a violent man, but don’t push me.
    And, yes, we can all appear blind and deaf. In Serie B all sorts of crazy stuff goes on, especially towards the end of the season. There are some really surreal games and nobody ever says a word. No player has ever stuck their head above the parapet. There are whispers that even in Serie A, certain teams will allow themselves to be led by the hand, so to speak. The really difficult step for a player to take is reporting a fellow pro who tries to involve him in a fix. What do you do? Especially if he’s a team-mate or, worse still, a friend. You tell him ‘no’ and have a go at him. If it were me, I’d probably give him a good slap. But how on earth do you then go and tell the authorities that he was about to commit the mother of all mistakes? At that point, they’re going to train the spotlight on you, too, even though you’ve nothing to do with it. You could end up paying the price for an attempted fraud despite having absolutely no guilt.
    That’s why I believe the principle of collective responsibility is wrong in this sort of case. You mess up, you involve me, I tell you ‘no’, I insult you, I don’t report you, and now they can come after me as well. It just doesn’t stack up.
    In addition to getting rid of betting, there should be incentives for winning. I’ll give you an example of how it might work. Team B are second in the league and up against Team C, who don’t have anything much to play for. If Team B lose, Team A (currently top of the table) go on to win the league. So Team A approach Team C and say: “Here’s some money. It’s yours if you beat Team B.”
    With positive incentives like that, every team would fight right until the finish without any sort of subterfuge. It already happens abroad, but I fear that in Italy we’ll never arrive at a similar solution because there are too many interests at stake. And that’s something I’m willing to bet on.
     
    19. Juventus won the 2011–2012 Serie A title by four points, going the entire league season unbeaten
    20. Calcioscommesse was a match fixing/betting scandal that saw Antonio Conte banned for 10 months, reduced to four on appeal

Chapter 9
    I wouldn’t bet a single cent on me becoming a manager, though. It’s not a job I’m attracted to. There are too many worries and the lifestyle is far too close to that of a player. I’ve done my bit and, in the future, I’d like to get back even a semblance of a private life. There’s only one Antonio Conte and that’s fine by me, even if Marcello Lippi wasn’t too dissimilar when he got pissed off.
    It was a real team effort that made us world champions in Germany but, at one point, Lippi had this to say about the group: “You’re all shits; you disgust me.” Before our quarter-final against Australia, a game we won thanks to a (non-existent) Francesco Totti penalty, he called us into a meeting room at the team hotel and tore us all to shreds.
    “You talk to the journalists too much. You’re spies who can’t keep a single secret – those guys always know the team in real time. What’s that all about? I can’t even trust you.” He wouldn’t let us say a word; it was an absolute monologue. He just couldn’t keep a lid on it. His face was contorted with rage, and the veins in his neck were about to explode. His brakes had evidently been tampered with.
    “Go fuck yourselves: I don’t want anything more to do with you. Bunch of bastards. Bastards and spies.” The