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MICAH: How often do you think about that QPR game? MANCINI: All the time. I still get the goosebumps!

MICAH RICHARDS takes a trip down memory lane with ROBERTO MANCINI to relive City’s amazing title, Italy’s Euro glory and Balotelli’s comeback

IMMEDIATELY it is obvious this will be no ordinary hour. Peering around a door frame with a glint in his eye, ROBERTO MANCINI is keeping tabs on one of his former players. ‘Hey!’ shouts Mancini. ‘It is you! The greatest defender in the world!’ Suddenly a room in Coverciano, the Italian Football Federation’s picturesque headquarters, is filled with laughter.

MICAH RICHARDS has travelled to Florence to see his old manager and the meeting does not disappoint. It is nine years since they last worked together but, quickly, it is like old times.

Soon, some familiar faces appear. Attilio Lombardo and Fausto Salsano, members of Mancini’s backroom staff in Manchester who remain by his side, join the reunion. There is also an appearance from the great Gianluca Vialli, whose bond with Italy’s head coach spans four decades.

This, clearly, is a good time to convene with Mancini, still gleaming from the buzz of winning Euro 2020 — the 26th honour of his glittering career — for a rare interview.

A MANCHESTER LOVE AFFAIR

We start with Mancini’s appointment as City manager in December 2009. they had seen him lead Inter Milan to success in serie a and wanted him to do the same for them. RICHARDS: When you came, floodlights were installed at the training ground so we could start training at 6pm. Everyone was thinking you were crazy! MANCINI: Ha! It used be 10.30am, one hour! There were four or five players who were like this (pretends to take aim with a rifle) — they wanted to shoot me! You remember the first month? It was very difficult but I was lucky because we won four games in a row. It was so different from Italy — new players, a different mentality. In the end, we changed the situation in Manchester, didn’t we? RICHARDS: You used to check everything on my plates to see what I was eating… MANCINI (theatrically): Oh! Your plates? Your plates! Everything! Chicken! Meat! Pasta! Vegetables! Bread! French fries! Then the ketchup on the top! RICHARDS (laughing): Do you remember this? (Mancini is shown a picture of the pair hugging after Richards had scored the winner in the FA Cup quarter-final against Reading in March 2011). MANCINI (faking surprise): Who is this?

Manchester City is a piece of my life, a piece of my heart

RICHARDS: The game before was against Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League. You had blamed me for the first goal when we lost 2-0. Actually, you blamed me — and Mario (Balotelli) — for everything! The ball had gone over Vincent Kompany’s head and their striker came in behind me. At half-time, you wanted to kill me. MANCINI: No, come on! RICHARDS: Afterwards, I went crazy. I kicked a plate of sandwiches over! But this picture was from the game after, against Reading. I scored a header and afterwards I came over to hug you... all the players were calling me a teacher’s pet. MANCINI: I liked you because you wanted to improve. When you trained? Always 100 per cent. RICHARDS: I’d played for England aged 18. I thought I was one of the best around but you said to me: ‘No, no, no… tactically — you can improve’. So I wanted to learn from you. Some players wouldn’t accept that criticism. MANCINI: Sometimes in England young players don’t think about the tactical situation. They run a lot, they fight, they have good technique. But sometimes, you have to play in a good position. If you want to have a good team, to play good football, you must have tactics.

93 MINUTES AND 20 SECONDS

ManCInI’s Manchester City played brilliant football, culminating in one glorious day in May 2012 when they became champions of england for the first time in 44 years. they held their nerve against QPr that day, just as they did all season. RICHARDS: Do you remember the game when Yaya Toure was at the Africa Cup of Nations? MANCINI: Everton!

RICHARDS: I knew you would remember… It was January 31, 2012 to be precise. It’s almost ten years to the day. MANCINI: We were in a difficult moment and I needed to get a reaction from you all. Oh, Everton… A very bad stadium! Always we had a problem there, we lost 1-0. I was thinking: ‘How do I get a reaction from these players?’ So I said to you: ‘Without Yaya Toure, you are a **** team!’ I walked off. The players were going crazy at me, shouting! But after this game, we won nearly every game to the end. RICHARDS: Do you understand how much you did for Manchester City? You were the one who started this period… MANCINI: The first six months, we fought all the way to the last game to get into the Champions League. We lost 1-0 at home to Tottenham. Second year, we won the FA Cup and finished third with the same points like Chelsea. Third year, we won the league. And this Premier League was incredible. RICHARDS: How often do you think about the QPR game? MANCINI: All the time… I get goose-bumps — one of the best victories ever. Someone showed me a clip of the goals recently. I was so emotional seeing it. The goal Sergio scored was for every one of us. In the last two minutes, I’m thinking: ‘We just cannot lose this game.’ Nobody remembers Yaya was

off the pitch, injured. Nigel De Jong was on. The last ten minutes, we had five strikers on. They had one man less, as (Joey) Barton had been sent off. We had a lot of chances but still we are losing 1-2. RICHARDS: Were you more nervous in the penalty shootout at Euro 2020 or the final four minutes against QPR? MANCINI: It’s different, no? The penalties were so very difficult. You are there waiting. You hope the opponent shoots (wide) or the keeper saves. In the last four minutes? That was just incredible. I hope that one day someone will make a film about it. Manchester City is a piece of my life, a piece of my heart.

To win the Premier League? The fans were always there for me. I am proud because we really changed things in Manchester. With United, who had (Sir Alex) Ferguson, it was so difficult. To achieve what we did makes me very happy, very proud. You have a place in the history of the club.

ONE GOLDEN SUMMER

MANCINI won so many knockout tournaments with an array of clubs as manager, but nothing compared to the day he lifted Italian football from the depths of missing out on the 2018 World Cup to the summit after beating england in the final at Wembley. RICHARDS: What comes to your mind when you see this? (Mancini is shown a picture of him draped in the Italian flag, covered in tickertape and cradling the Henri Delaunay trophy). MANCINI (momentarily quiet): Ah… Very, very good memory… the feeling was incredible because it was a very difficult game, eh? Wembley… England… 70,000 people against us! (laughs). We believed we could do it but there were four or five teams better than us to start with. It wasn’t easy but I think we deserved to win. RICHARDS: When Luke Shaw scored so early I feared Italy would win as suddenly England had something to defend and dropped deep. MANCINI:After 15 minutes, they were trying to keep the ball. England had waited such a long time for that moment. I told the players to be calm, I spoke to them from my heart. RICHARDS: You played in a Euro Championships with Vialli, you played with Lombardo — now you have won a Euro Championship alongside them as a coach. It is an incredible story that you have stayed together for so long and did this for your country MANCINI: The Euro Championship is special for me, for Gianluca. We had played at Wembley 30 years ago and lost the European Cup against Barcelona. That defeat will never leave me. For Sampdoria, that was the one time, the one chance to win that trophy… 30 years later, I couldn’t lose another important game in the same stadium again. RICHARDS: What was it like coming back to Rome with the trophy? MANCINI: The situation was strange because of coronavirus. When we got back in the afternoon and we went to see the president, we took the bus. There were so many people. 10,000? No! More! From the headquarters of the government to our hotel, it was five kilometres and there were people all the way with the bus. Just incredible.

THE FUTURE

I called Balotelli up to the Italy squad because he is old, he is 31. Maybe his mind is better now

ItALY, remarkably, still have to fight to qualify for the World Cup and Mancini caused a surprise this week when calling up Mario Balotelli for a training camp. his team are involved in a play-off against North Macedonia in March but, either way, Mancini is not losing sleep. RICHARDS: You lost Federico Chiesa to injury, you have gone back for Mario. He has been doing well, no? MANCINI: It had been three years since I had spoken to him. I called him because he is old, he is 31. Maybe his mind is better now! When Mario came to Manchester, he was an incredible talent. He was young with big quality. He always trained well — always. He is also a good guy — you know this. His technique was always there. Maybe he didn’t always have the right mindset and that impacted him being consistently one of the top players in the world. When you are a player at this level, you have to work very hard. RICHARDS: Being here with you now, you seem much more relaxed than you were with us. I saw you in your blazer at Wembley, standing there so calm. In the QPR game when you were screaming at us, ‘ **** you, **** all of you’! But with Italy I didn’t see you like that… MANCINI: In Manchester, I was young (winks). Now I have more experience; I’m calm and happy. I have a good life in Rome, I ride my bike to clear my mind. In Italy, if I react like you said, it’s normal. It’s not because I hate someone or anything. It’s passion, it’s normal to say these things. RICHARDS: A World Cup without Italy? I don’t believe that will happen. You will beat North Macedonia and then it is Portugal or Turkey… MANCINI: Our target is Macedonia. Never look past the next game, you know I say that! But let me say this (winks again): we have to try to win the World Cup in December.

Exclusive Interview

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2022-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

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