Adriano Galliani has shared some interesting stories from his 30 years at Milan, including one in which ‘we were convinced Donadoni had died’ and a few about Shevchenko, Kaka and even Dzeko.
Galliani was a guest on the MilanTV show ‘Talk Milan’ on Friday night and in addition to confirming that these are his last 3 weeks with the Diavolo, the current CEO also told anecdotes about some events and players from the past 30 years.
At the start of the program, Galliani spoke directly to Andriy Shevchenko through the telephone, and shared a story concerning the brilliant former striker: “We when won the Champions League in 2003 against Juventus we did a gala dinner and there was a very famous psychiatrist sitting next to me. And I asked him: ‘Is it normal that it’s been 20 days since the final and every time I see the Shevchenko penalty I still fear that he will miss? Is it serious?’ And he replied: ‘It is irrecoverable’ [Sheva laughs in the background]. A big hug and thanks to you for everything you’ve done for Milan!
“The exit of Sheva in 2006 [he’s believed to have left because his wife wanted to move to London]? We tried so hard and President Silvio Berlusconi did everything possible to make him stay. That day I continued to tell him I was ready to tear up his contract. That year we were the top-ranked team in the world. I told him: ‘See Andriy, if you don’t score with us for a few weeks, the fans will still remember your goals. At Chelsea that won’t happen.’ If he had stayed, he would certainly have surpassed Gunnar Nordahl’s total, but it was a decision that we had to respect. I count the goal that was cancelled against Barcelona in 2006 [in the second leg of the semi-finals] so he has 176 goals.”
Galliani went on to speak about Manuel Rui Costa and Kaka, revealing what he had to do in order to sign the Brazilian: “I admire Rui Costa a lot,” Uncle Fester said on the former Fiorentina and Diavolo trequartista. “He was a great player and he always behaved well. After a few training sessions with Kaka he said: ‘He is better than me!’, and that’s something I heard from very few players in 30 years.
“Kaka’s arrival? It’s because of Braida and Leonardo who pushed very hard. I believed in what I was told and had this crazy intuition. We didn’t have place in the squad for a non-EU player. I said: ‘who knows, maybe something will happen’ and then I gave Mohammed Aliyu Datti to Standard Liege. I called my friend [then Liege VP] Luciano D’Onofrio and told him: ‘You have to take this non-EU player… we will pay his salary but you have to take him from us to create us space for Kaka.'”
Galliani on the 2nd leg of the 2003 Champions League semi-final between Milan and Inter [finished 1-1, Shevchenko scored the first goal]: “There was a mistake by Billy [Costacurta] and Obafemi Martins scored [in the 84′ minute]. Then the dramatic stuff happened, my heart froze: In the 87‘ minute, Mohamed Kallon got to a 1v1 with Abbiati but the ball hit Christian’s calf and went out.
“If the ball went in then there would’ve been not Manchester, no anything. That was Abbiati’s life policy, I told him then: ‘From this moment, you decide when you want to stop [leave / retire] and in fact this year it was he who decided to retire [Abbiati was sitting next to him in the studio last night].”
For years, fans around the world considered Galliani to be a transfer guru and he is pretty much partly or directly responsible for every Champion (and Flop) that wore the Rossoneri jersey. But as he revealed last night, there were many players that got away, from Rivaldo in 2000 (although the Brazilian later joined the club in 2002) to current joint-Serie A top scorer, Roma’s Edin Dzeko.
“Milan were playing the Centenary game against Real Madrid in the summer of 2000, but [former Director of Sport] Ariedo Braida and I weren’t there to see it, because we were with Rivaldo’s agent, trying to sign him,” Galliani, who turned 72 on June 30th, said. “We were unable to sign him.
“There are many stories of players who were on the verge of joining us and then didn’t arrive. One of those is Figo – every time I see him, I give him a little punch. Another? A few years ago, I tried to sign Dzeko and spent three days hidden in a Sarajevo hotel along with Braida. Lately the media always seem to catch me, though [this summer he was caught on his secret Pjaca mission in Zagreb].”
A different Galliani story from last night is about the city of Belgrade, in particular the match against Red Star on the 10th of November 1989. “I remember during the interval of a game we then won against Red Star on penalties… we were convinced Donadoni had died,” the former Monza man said.
“Donadoni had a knock and wasn’t breathing anymore. He had gone completely blue. A nurse who went on to the pitch saved his life. The boys played the second half convinced that Donadoni was dead or dying. We were all crying during half-time [Roberto suffered head trauma and a fractured jaw following a clash with Vasilievic and had nearly swallowed his tongue as the medical staff performed the mouth-to-mouth; Milan went on to winning that European Cup campaign – the 4th of out 7].”
Galliani has a lot more stories and surely many of them will be told in the next weeks and months when after 30 years of being one of the two strongest men at Milan, he’ll become just a regular fan.