Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2023

/88 9TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT Because Grosso, after the celebration of his goal, was crying , saying “I’moff, I’moff”. That time you had one man, Lippi after that all said: “Defend now!”. Do you remember? Of course, you score in the 119th minute of a Semifinal and Grosso haven’t scored a lot of goals, so, it was a big deal. He spent more energy to celebrate than other ones. We jumped on top of him and we almost killed him but it was a tough moment, because, every time, after any goal is the most important moment. So, with one minute left, the most important thing was to defend. They were coming up with a long ball, it was actually on the line of defenders and I was one meter below. So, if something happened, I was the guy that kept them onside and Materazzi told me: “Be careful!” “I’m not used to be so far back!” The ball went to Gilardino and I was thinking hewas going to go to the flag and waste time, but he turned inside almost to hit and go and at that time I accelerated one more and I called him: “Gila! Gila!”. I didn’t know, it was in the middle of Westfalia Stadium, very loud, we had 2000 Italians and 83,000 Germans screaming against us. So, I didn’t even expect that he was hearing but it’s something that came up instinctively: you call someone and then at the end of the game he said: “Do you know Ale that I heard you!” And then I sawthe images and I saw Gilardino giving me a no look pass. I realized that he never did that before, so, of course, he heard He tried to say but the referee finished thegame, becausewescoredthegoal, we went to celebrate and then before we even come back, he gives the three whistles. Anyway, defense is part of the game. We celebrated the game of Guardiola all these past years, but Guardiola had a different approach in defence side than the other years. It’s not random that happened this thing. For Italians, defense is very important, it is traditional, we have the best defender ever in the history of football, the best goalkeepers and for us is an art. Now, it’s a little bit different with the new rules, because we cannot hold too much, you cannot punch anyone, but in the past it was kind of fun for the defenders, less for the attackers like me. me! That’s an amazing pass, maybe the best assist I received and it gave me the opportunity for glory, in the same corner that I scored my first goal in the Champions League. Same stadium, same goal, same side of the stadium, same corner. When you talk about experiences, or something that we call superstitions in Italy, or we call it different things around the world, but that’s incredible that it happened in the same way!