MILAN – The studio audience warmly received Antonio Cassano as a guest on the Rai 3 programme "Che tempo che fa", conducted by Fabio Fazio. In his own way he reciprocated those smiles, recounting how the worst nightmare he ever had was that of "becoming an engineer".
That’s in the past. Today Antonio plays football, and he does so wearing the Nerazzurri shirt, on which he spoke: "I feel good at Inter, very good. With AC Milan I had reached the sky, and now with Inter I’m above the sky. After the heart problem that I had my desire to play football came back to me. At that moment, since I’m not a believer, I said that if there were someone who existed, the last thing he could give me would be to see my son again. This was the only thing I wanted. It went well, I was lucky. After the fear you see things in a different way. How do you become? Not better, because I'm like I was before. But more responsible. Only the problem is I never think things through to ten. I make one mistake after the next. A couple? Yes, a couple per minute however…"
"The start with Inter was a good one, but now I have to continue like this," says Cassano, who then addressed the national team topic: "I don’t know why I wasn’t called up, but I hope to be taken into consideration all the way until the end for the World Cup. The thing I find a bit irritating is that the journalists find out who gets called to the squad even before the players do. And then if I do miss out on the World Cup I’ll move forward anyway…"
A photo of Adriano Galliani, AC Milan’s vice president, during the last derby won by Inter ("I think it was taken before the game because he was happy and content…" reflected the Inter striker proudly). Then the discussion turned immediately to the atmosphere at Inter and his friendship with Yuto Nagatomo: "We’re friends because we don’t understand anything when we talk to each other [smiling]. What do we talk about? Everything, food, women. From morning to night we tell each other a thousand times what great friends we are, because we don’t have any alternatives."
From Sampdoria to Inter, via AC Milan, not Juventus: "I refused three times to go there. They just want soldiers there, people who only go straight on their tracks. Sometimes I have to go to the right, to the left, where I feel like. Stramaccioni really wanted me. What does he like about me? I don’t know. I just hope he didn’t make the biggest mistake of his life. Today life is all wine and roses for me. Tomorrow, I don’t know. But I have to thank him and president Moratti who were straight shooters with me, and I’ll repay them on the pitch."
Between smiles and wisecracks, Cassano told stories and recounted his latest ‘cassanata’ ("a term invented by Fabio Capello"): "This morning I lost the training match and I threw all the balls away. Why? I don’t know. I don’t think about it. That’s just how I am."
The mention of his earrings led to talk about Christopher: "When my son begins to understand I’ll take them out because I want to be a model father. Will I start playing golf? I don’t like it. It’s a game for nerds. No offence, but you hit the ball, then you have to wait fifteen minutes to hit it again. I get bored."
Regarding the Sampdoria chapter, the striker confirmed what has already been said: "Now I’m at Inter. I’m an Inter fan, but it would be a dream to return home. My base is in Genoa."
And if it was true, as it’s written in his book, that "mornings aren’t good for anything," now it’s precisely where Cassano’s day begins: "Now there’s my son who wakes me up and I have to get up by 7:00. Does Stramaccioni send for me? No, he’s awake by 6:00 to organise everything."
Then from the discussion on Cassano’s schedule, the subject changed to that of the football: "a perfect object like no other". He explained why: "It’s fun, happiness, popularity, money. Football is everything. Is there passion? At the beginning, then it becomes a job and you enjoy that life. Does the fun go away? I still enjoy myself, but then it’s normal that the passion will fade. It’s not that I can make it to 40 years old like Zanetti… [smiling]. Only that he can keep going up to 60 because he trains better than me, runs more than me and is perfect."
And with this same naturalness and sincerity the Nerazzurri forward explained to Fabio Fazio that "the excuse that works best to get you out of training is to say that you’re having groin problems. They’ll run the tests and nothing will show up, but it’s my word against yours."
It wasn’t Antonio ("I don’t know how to use twitter or anything else") but rather his wife Carolina who revealed her second pregnancy via social network: "It’s something wonderful but we hope it’s another boy, to get him to play football." And after having confessed that Gigi D'Alessio is his idol, Cassano had no doubts at the end of the transmission when football was brought up again: "Messi is the best player of all time. In five years he’s scored more than 200 goals, and his consistency is devastating."
