Birth: 2 May 1941, Lipari Death: 3 October 2005, Genoa Place of burial: Canneto Cemetery
Luca Serafini remembers Franco Scoglio, the professor, who would have turned 83 today
If the Professor had a limit, it was that he always wanted to adapt his ideas to the players, even when they were unable to assimilate them or put them into practice.
Franco Scoglio, however, was not stubborn, adamant due to pride, or shortsightedness, or stubbornness: he believed in it completely. He had no doubts. With this adorable arrogance of his, supported by a colorful, rich, gestural, animated speech, he had won everyone’s sympathy as well as profound admiration, because coherence – even at the expense of the result – rewards for the effort it entails and the determination by which it is accompanied.
It was somewhat the characteristic of that fundamentalist generation which had its greatest exponent in Arrigo Sacchi, but also Marchioro, Orrico (a little earlier), Maifredi, Zaccheroni… up to Sarri and Guardiola who today is perhaps the last heir of that ‘epic, tending to favor the game and the team rather than the individual player.
Graduated and then teacher of pedagogy, Scoglio had a tiny – almost invisible – career as a footballer, starting to coach at just 30 years old, in 1971, in Gioia Tauro, experiencing the peaks in his native Messina (taking the team to Serie B in 1986) and then on the Genoese rossoblù side with another promotion from B to A in 1989. At Genoa his captain was poor Gianluca Signorini, the club’s true flagship. Scoglio had not a predilection for him, but an authentic veneration.
When, with the operator, I reached the Genoa summer retreat in Acqui Terme, for one of the SportMediaset specials in 1990, I explained to the coach that we should have done some interviews and training footage.
He replied: “No problem, talk to Signorini and do the lineup with him”.
I was a little taken aback: “We spoke with your press office, we planned…”.
He interrupted me: “The press office has authorized you to come here, now you have to entrust Signorini to direct.”
A relationship of great sympathy and mutual esteem was born with Scoglio, which continued in the many following years when he began to frequent the television studios (Antenna 3 with Maurizio Mosca, Mediaset, Primocanale in Genoa) more than the benches.
I found him everywhere, because I collaborated for all three broadcasters, including Primocanale – hosted by Fulvio Collovati – where I was often a guest with Claudio Onofri and Massimo Brambati.
In the studios of that television, Franco died live on 3 October 2005, after a lively telephone discussion with the president of Genoa, Enrico Preziosi, so that one of his joking prophecies from some time before came true: “I will die talking about my Genoa”.
I remember a joke, in that last period of his life in which Milan and Juventus shared championships and placings: “They are the only two teams that make synchronized movements, the others move like seaweed under water”, miming with the fingers of hands.
Sicilian from Lipari, scathing and not very inclined to conviction, Scoglio obviously stood out for his ideas, but above all for the tones set to music by the cadence, for phrases with devious effect such as jabs. I found a collection of them on a site, on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of his passing.
“I don’t like talking ad dictum”. “Every morning I have to get up hating someone.” “What lust when I lose! Defeat exalts me as much as victory: I can savor irreplaceable stimuli again.” “The opponent doesn’t decide: I decide how he should play”. “I’m a street coach, a bit of a whore, who makes do.” “My players must have triple attributes. Those who have three balls do the pressing, those who have two play football, those who have one play matches between bachelors and married couples.” “I don’t have a cap on my head or even a wrapped lupara, I’m Sicilian and Gaddafi’s son has never played with me and will never play: I don’t like being blackmailed by anyone”. “There are 21 ways to take a corner, but only 12 ways to take a free kick.”
Anecdotes that paint Professor Franco Scoglio very well: they remind us of him more alive than ever on one of those benches, on one of those armchairs in the television studios, where football was being talked about.
In another way, neither better nor worse, but different, like a romantic aftermath. (by Luca Serafini for filippogalli.com)
Some of Professor Scoglio’s famous phrases:
I don’t do poetry. I verticalize.
Ask me a specific question, I can’t make statements ad dim.
I don’t coach. I teach football
There are twenty-one ways to take a corner kick.
The revelation coach? The one who wins.
I usually speak with hindsight
I hate Sampdoria and I don’t miss an opportunity to reiterate it
When he coached Messina: when I lose I suffer twice: the first because I am the coach, the second because I am Messina
Doping has always existed and footballers are ignorant, in the sense that they ignore elements of chemistry and pharmacology.
Coaching more than sixteen players gives me a headache.
My football is like this: 47 percent technique, 30 percent physical condition, 23 percent psychology.
What lust when I lose. Defeat exalts me and makes me savor irreplaceable stimuli.
On the pitch I do my worst.
The dirty zone is a measure against holes that the pure zone can create. Offside is not automatic when the dirt is behind. It becomes mandatory when the dirt climbs forward in place of one of the four defenders in line.
In football it is good to hide your strengths.
Giacomo Leopardi? I like his poetry because it is clear and indecipherable.
In my life I have suffered microtraumas from books.
You, over there, with those headphones, have to stop otherwise I’ll talk to shit.
I had prostituted myself in my last Italian experiences. But when you prostitute yourself and then are born again, you have a clear conscience
Every morning I look in the mirror and tell myself that Capello is the biggest offense for the category.
I look at 300 degrees on the pitch, I keep the other 60 to myself.
Lippi is an exceptional coach who never goes out of his way.
I will die talking about Genoa