«When it comes to teaching football, technique and everything that comes with it, they are among the best. As for how to feel at ease with the outside world, maybe not: I should try a little harder.” This phrase attributed to Giovanni Galeone lies on the thin border between legend and reality, like many moments in the life of this “special” coach who died at the age of 84 in Udine. But he describes it better than anyone else could have. Beyond the victories on the pitch, the aggressive play of his teams, the champions he discovered and then launched, Galeone had broken the diaphragm that tied him to football to enter the collective imagination of Italy in the 80s and 90s, with an excursion up to the first decade of the 2000s.
His golden period was linked to the football of Maradona and Platini, of German-backed Inter and Van Basten’s Milan. Galeone trained in the province but his breaking of every type of pattern – both sporting and social – had made him a character on TV and a darling for the curves of half of Italy. The «Pibe de oro» itself considered him one of the best technicians in Italy to the point that they wanted him with them in Naples. On the other hand, the two – coach and player – were united by going against the grain, at all costs. In football that continually seeks exaggerated physical performance, the image of Galeone nervously smoking on the bench is non-conformism personified. And Galeone has always been a nonconformist. The champagne and pizzas brought to the players at the end of training made history. Or the complaint that he was pushed to take all kinds of drugs when he was a footballer. This way of doing things left a strong impression on his “boys”. His most famous and certainly the most grateful “student” is Massimo Allegri who often – even recently when he went to visit him in hospital in Udine – indicated him as a fundamental figure in his football training.
Giampiero Gasperini and Marco Giampaolo also owe a lot to him. And Rino Gattuso who at 18 was launched by Galeone in Perugia. He was born in Naples on 25 January 1941 but was “Friulian” at heart also because at a very young age he had moved to Trieste with his family: the beginning of a long wandering that led him to travel all over Italy and to earn – as a coach – the nickname of “sailor”. As a footballer he played on the pitches of Udinese, Arezzo, Avellino, Entella and other minor teams. Then in the mid-1970s the beginning of his adventure on the bench: from Pordenone to Spal, to Como, to Ancona. His football history is linked above all to Naples, Perugia, Udinese and his native Pescara. “Going where not even Mazzone had managed was madness and a mistake of presumption.” after. No trophy won but four promotions to Serie A: two with Pescara (1986-87 and 1991-92), one with Udinese (1994-95) and one with Perugia (1995-96). offensive and spectacular style of play that made him loved especially by the fans. The theory was: to score many goals but always manage to score one more, but the public was sure to have fun. “For me – he said – the 4-3-3 is the only formation that has reason to exist, to play you have to have fun.” The “sailor” then retired from playing football in 2013. Beyond the pitch, it was his non-conformist spirit that made him known even outside the football fields. An answer he gave to the histrionic president of Perugia, Luciano Gaucci, who asked him to control the lives of the footballers, made history: «Sex before the matches? I have never been able to organize mine, let alone that of others.”