MILAN - If you take a map of Sardinia and try to pinpoint the middle of the island, your finger won't land far from Ovodda. Gianfranco Matteoli was born there in 1959 in the midst of the Gennargentu mountain range, in a city famous for its murals and centenarians. Thirty years later he would make his mark at the heart of Giovanni Trapattoni's record-breaking Inter side.
Gianfranco spent his childhood in the countryside helping out his dad and playing football in the narrow streets of Ovodda, along with a generation of kids dreaming of following in Gigi Riva's footsteps. It's a long old slog though from a small town in Sardinia to top-level football and Matteoli suffered a number of setbacks at the start. He did get the chance to play for Cagliari but was let go from the Rossoblu in the summer of 1975 after just two trials. He showed great maturity, however, to use that disappointment as the foundations upon which to build his career. He packed his bags and carried his dreams to Northern Italy and Cantu, with a gamble which very quickly paid off.
As with lots of young stars - in subsequent years too - Mino Favini was one of the first to spot Gianfranco's potential. Indeed he needed just three matches in Serie D to decide that the midfielder had earned a move to Como. Matteoli began playing for their Primavera side before inexplicably being substituted despite an excellent first-half display at home to Juventus. His anger only lasted a few minutes, however, until Osvaldo Bagnoli told him he'd been included in the first-team squad for the following day's match against Spal, which would be his Serie B debut.
In 1977, Gianfranco began a long series of loan moves. He joined Giulianova, Osimana and Reggiana before returning to Como with whom he'd achieve promotion to Serie A. He then spent a year at Sampdoria, before signing for Inter in 1986. He met Giovanni Trapattoni in Milan, who would become the second-most influential figure in Gianfranco's career. Trap saw him as a good defensive midfielder and picked him there, moving him from number 10 into the engine room. The diminutive playmaker with curly hair was a quick thinker with fast feet and his technical ability was a great fit with the forward runs of Berti and Matthaus and the Nerazzurri's forward play in general. They never lost shape, however.
Matteoli pulled the strings in the 1988/89 season when Inter set the record tally in Serie A during the two-points-for-a-win era. The midfielder also scored after just nine seconds against Cesena, which would remain the Italian top flight's fastest ever goal for several years. Then, having won the league title and Super Cup, he got the call in the summer of 1990 that he had been waiting 15 years for. A more mature and successful Matteoli was ready to join Cagliari, the team he'd been dreaming of playing for since he was a kid. He stayed for four seasons, even enjoying an incredible run in the UEFA Cup with the Sardinian side as they went all the way to the semi-finals before falling to the eventual winners Inter.
After retiring from his playing career, Matteoli began working in youth-team football albeit the other way round this time. He started as academy director at Cagliari, masterminding changes which would see the Sardinian academy produce a number of prospects. Then he rejoined the Nerazzurri in the summer of 2016, becoming a scout and the director of an Inter academy in his homeland. He knows better than anyone that determined youngsters can be hidden in even the smallest places.
Alessandro Bai
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