Luciano Spalletti: Unfiltered Revelations

Luciano Spalletti has decided to speak out. And he does it in his style: direct, edgy, uncensored. Today sees the release of “Il Paradiso esiste… ma quanta fatica” (Rizzoli), the autobiography of the National Team’s coach written with Giancarlo Dotto. More than an autobiography, it’s a settling of scores that can be found thanks to previews from Corriere and Repubblica. Inside, there’s the break with De Laurentiis after the championship, his truths (according to him) about Francesco Totti, and a very heavy attack on Ilary Blasi, “guilty” of interfering in an “arrogant and rude” way.

Among the most surprising passages of the book, the one dedicated to Ilary Blasi is undoubtedly the most venomous. Spalletti responds years later to the accusations of Totti’s then-wife, who had called him “a small man.” The harsh reply: “Francesco will always be like a son to me. However, his ex-wife will never be like a daughter-in-law to me. when she insulted me gratuitously, I realized how lucky I was to have an intelligent woman by my side, who never interfered arrogantly and rudely in my work. It can happen to be a small man or a small woman. Certainly, she was.”

A blunt judgment, unfiltered, that ends with a symbolic and personal slap at Ilary’s public figure, now engaged in a completely different media context.

Quite different, though full of bitterness, is the account of the relationship with Francesco Totti. Spalletti describes him as the player he cared for the most: “My fate was in his feet. I did things for him that I did for no one else.” But he emphasizes: it wasn’t him who made him retire. “Many claimed that I was the one who made Totti retire. False. The myth of Totti, the flag, were aspects that had to be managed by the club, not me. I had clearly asked for it upon my return. I was not to be sent to slaughter in that one against all. I always fielded the lineup I thought would win, no more, no less. But the Sud at one point sided against me.”

He talks of misunderstandings, silences, and a team that, according to him, never rebelled against his technical choices: “If I had wronged their captain, people like De Rossi, Strootman, Nainggolan, or Maicon would have stopped me. It didn’t happen. Reiterating in the following months that I wasn’t the one to push Totti away from Roma was of no use. I was willing to support any of his choices. To reinforce this concept and “free” Totti from “enemy” Spalletti, I publicly said that I wouldn’t renew the contract with Roma: I resigned for this reason too, to avoid being blamed for a responsibility I didn’t have and that wasn’t fair to assign to me. The truth is that — right or wrong — the fate of the number 10 at Trigoria was sealed. But the truth, as we know, is only for those who want to see it. We all made mistakes in that situation.” There is also room for a tender and poignant dream: “One night I dreamed of him telling me: ‘Mister, I understood you just wanted to extend my career…’ Then I woke up.”

Ample space is also given to the end of the relationship with Aurelio De Laurentiis, the president who led Napoli to a historic third championship but whom Spalletti calls “the Sultan” in the chapter titled Hidden Truths. The reasons for the departure? “I no longer wanted to sustain a continuous conflict with a capable entrepreneur but with too big an ego. Tired of having to fight over every issue, from the jersey for the players’ children to the continuous change of hotels.”

Spalletti also recounts emblematic episodes, like the “forced eviction” from the usual hotel to make room for Juventus, or the president’s press silence which, according to him, “was the greatest sacrifice for someone like him, who loves to be at the center of the scene.”

The relationship definitively broke down after the championship, when De Laurentiis enforced a clause to unilaterally renew the contract. Spalletti responded with a handwritten letter, requesting a meeting before the announcement. There wasn’t one. “If there had been more human respect, more dialogue, I would have stayed,” he writes, while thanking the president “for allowing me to coach Napoli.”