‘First, you win the scudetto, then you can leave’

A conversation with Pietro Vierchowod

‘AC Milan contacted me and offered me twice as much as I was making at Sampdoria. So I go to Mantovani and say, look, they are offering me twice as much. He replies, “Come on Pietro, if we are talking about money, you know I can’t match those offers. Just think about it, though.” We still had to play the second leg of the Coppa Italia final against Napoli in Cremona, and we went on a training camp in Salsomaggiore. Mancini and Vialli gave me a hard time all week. During the meals, on the football field, in the evenings – they’d come up to me and say “you can’t go”. They would knock on my door at any given time, saying I couldn’t leave them: “First, you win the scudetto with Sampdoria,” they would say, “then you can leave.” They would call me a traitor, or beg me to stay with a pleading look on their faces. So, in the end, I changed my mind. The cup final came and we won 4–0. I scored the third goal and Mantovani came on to the pitch, made me lift the trophy up high and told me, “I’ll renew your contract for three more years – Mancini and Vialli, your backers, gave me an enormous amount of hassle, so I agreed to that.”

He laughs out loud, remembering that week. Pietro Vierchowod, also known as ‘The Czar’. His nickname comes from his Ukrainian father Ivan, who was a factory worker in the engineering industry and was formerly a deportee soldier. He smiles at the memory of the ‘Goal Twins’ making his life impossible. And it didn’t just happen once: Mancini managed to block his transfer on the following year, too: ‘It was 1990, and Mantovani sold me to Juventus, together with Vialli. The president was a good friend of Juve president Giovanni Agnelli, and he couldn’t take his word back. Under Mancini’s insistent pressure, he made me and Gianluca pull out.’

This is the story of the failed transfer that allowed the Blucerchiati to win their much-wanted championship, of which more later. The former centre-back, one of the best in the Italian league during the 1980s and 90s, joined Samp­doria a year after the arrival of Roberto Mancini, following a title-winning season with Roma in 1983.

‘He was very young, but he already had a strong personality,’ says Vierchowod of Mancini. ‘He was very talented, and afterwards he went on to become the champion we all know. He was perhaps the key to the success of our team, which grew little by little and won everything there was for us to win.’ Vierchowod, 53, is now far from the football world. He stood for mayor in the latest administrative elections in Como, the city where he has been living for many years. He got 2.53 per cent of the vote. ‘A decent result,’ he suggests, ‘if you consider that I am no expert, and it was the first time that I did anything of the sort. It was a good experience.’ So will he carry on with politics? ‘We shall see … we still have time on our hands. We created an association, Il Faro (‘The Lighthouse’) for Como, and we shall continue our work.’ So let us leave politics aside and go back to football.

Mancini was a talented player; however, in his first years, with Ulivieri and Bersellini, he was unable to get going …

‘He didn’t have the same opportunities he got later on. That one was a team under construction, and it was better to let the experienced footballers play, leaving the young ones to one side. The time with Bersellini was the year when Roberto played the least.’

There was also an issue about his position?

‘Sometimes, when you are young, your ideas on your role on the football field might not be totally clear. Then you mature, and you find your place on the pitch. That is just what Roberto did, making the most of his talent.’

What did you see as his best position?

‘I preferred him as an attacking midfielder, because he had the right skills and he would continuously try out new stuff. He didn’t score much, but he liked to be on the ball. He would ask for it, even though he was surrounded by three opponents.’

You saw many champions play: Maradona, Van Basten, Falcao, Gullit, Platini, Ronaldo … who would you compare Mancini with, as a player?

‘Every player has his own distinctive traits, and Mancini had those of several champions in him. When he carried the ball, he could keep it, but also pass it to his teammates the right way; and when he was attacking, he was excellent at creating trouble for any defence. From midfield onwards, he could do anything. In the defensive areas, he was better off not getting involved …’

Talking about defending, apparently your arguments were quite popular, and they would end with Mancini saying ‘Pietro, you are the best defender in the world, but you don’t know anything about football.’ And you would answer the same back.

‘We were all quite close, but we wouldn’t mince our words. Mancini and I had a few arguments, it’s true, but everyone had quite a temper and we all wanted Sampdoria to win. And in the end, we did it. We were all willing to give 100 per cent, but occasionally someone did not manage to do so, or maybe was a bit selfish, so we inevitably ended up arguing. Mancini and I almost came to blows many a time; still, once the match ended, we went for dinner together that same night, regardless of anything that had happened a few hours before. That was our strength.’

Grandpa Vujadin was another of your strengths …

‘That’s right. Before him, we’d had other managers who didn’t succeed in turning us into a real team. It’s not that Boskov gave us new tactics, or some amazing new skills … we basically played man-to-man. It was individual skills that made our team. Still, he was very good at handling the dressing-room, he was fair and easygoing; we used to train in a serene mood, happily and with pleasure. Boskov was always quick-witted, and we gave our all for him.’

What about Sven-Göran Eriksson?

‘Eriksson tried to introduce a different system: he wanted us to play zonal. But in my opinion, in order to hold our group together and get the concepts through to us, more of an iron grip was needed – that was what Sacchi, one of the best managers ever, did with AC Milan. Sampdoria has always been a happy, jaunty club, which could have won much more than it did. Although it didn’t turn out that way, we still had a great time and we have all remained friends.’

Let’s talk briefly about the national team and Italia 90 …

‘I believe we threw that one away in Naples against Argentina. It was a really important semi-final; we had some footballers who were in good shape, but who weren’t playing. The match ended badly also because, with half an hour remaining­, substitutions that seemed obvious to me simply didn’t happen: Carlo Ancelotti, to strengthen the midfield, and me on Maradona. We were both kept out, and Mancini didn’t find any space.’

Roberto had been calling for a substitute for a long time in that match, seeing you as the ideal solution against ‘El Pibe de Oro’ (‘The Golden Boy’)…

‘We completely agreed on that. Azeglio Vicini had selected me for the national team after four years out. When he first encountered trouble, he said to me, ‘Do you want to come and play in the World Cup? I’ll be straight, though: I’ll play you only when it comes down to marking players such as Van Basten, Careca, Maradona.’ I said that was all right with me. So that was the ideal game for me. I was in good condition, I had played in three matches only, I’d had some rest and, in the championship, I had always done a good job marking Maradona. I had stopped him – he acknowledged that himself. But nothing happened. I ended up playing the match in Bari for third place, when there was no point anymore.’

So, after the disappointment in the World Cup, You went on holiday with Mancini, Vialli and your respective wives and girlfriends, to the Seychelles.

‘We were glad to get away. We went to a wonderful resort. We really needed that holiday, to get rid of the tension and recharge – as a matter of fact, the following year we won the league.’

What was that like?

‘It was a great ride. Even though we lost the derby against Genoa just before Christmas and the match against Lecce, we won the league convincingly. We didn’t mess up a single game in the second half of the season; everything went smoothly. We went to Milan and won against Inter, we went to San Paolo put four past Napoli – Mancini’s goal was brilliant. We played great football, with great simplicity. And the scudetto gave us the chance to play in the European Cup. It would have been amazing to be the first club to win both the league and the European Cup without a proper tradition on its back. Unfortunately, that match went as it did … we missed four chances and Barcelona scored against us 14 minutes into extra time – a 40-metre shot by Koeman. Maybe that’s the way it had to go, but we were stronger than Barcelona. Maybe some of us, including Mancini, were a bit too nervous. That final was a bit too uncomfortable.’

It was also one of the saddest memories for many Sampdoria fans. Anyway, what is your happiest memory with Mancini?

‘Winning the Cup-Winners’ Cup, the first European trophy we ever gained. We had lost the final in Berne the previous year, but we did it the second time round. It was like a dream come true. When we returned to Genoa, I got off the plane first, walking down the steps holding the cup. Mancini gave it to me. He knew the president wanted to sell me to Juventus. But I didn’t leave, because Roberto made Mantovani change his mind.’