Chapter 3 3. Pain, My Faithful Lover

I started to make a name for myself with the Caldogno Boys. In 1980, when I was 13, Vicenza bought me for $300.Vicenza does not have a children's team, and you must be 14 years old to play in the youth team, so from September of that year to February of the next year, I only trained and did not play.The following year, Vicenza canceled the junior team, and I couldn't play for another year, but I was lucky enough to train with the same team for 6 months.From 1982, I joined the first team. Vicenza was in the third division at the time.During my first year at Vicenza, I got used to being benched and it was my worst nightmare.After 20 years, I think Coach George is doing the right thing. After all, I am only 16 years old.In the second season, I still didn't have much room to play. I only participated in 6 games, but scored 1 goal.Vicenza wanted to break into the second division, but failed.

From 1984, the coach officially let me join the first team.I played 29 games and scored 12 goals.It's been a great season, I've played well and it's the starting point for me to become a professional footballer.Vicenza started auctioning me on the ball market because they needed money. The one who wanted me the most was Sampdoria, but Mantovani, the chairman of the team, was hospitalized with a heart attack at a critical moment, and the transfer matter went nowhere.Among the teams that were interested in me, the Fiorentina president, Count Pontelo, offered the highest price of $1.5 million, which Vicenza accepted immediately, and I couldn't say no to that because Vicenza needed money.It was May 3, 1984, and tragedy happened two days later.

On May 5, Vicenza played against Rimini led by Sacchi.Not long after the opening, I opened the scoring, 1-0.Later, I was chasing a player from behind, and suddenly slipped and collided with him, severely fractured the joint of my right leg.I felt a knife stuck in my leg.A month later, at the Saint-Etienne Hospital in France, Professor Bousquet operated on me.At that time, this kind of operation was difficult, and many players said goodbye to football because of the same problem.The surgery went well, but it was also scary.During the operation, the doctor used a drill to drill a hole in the tibia, cut off the tendon with a knife, then tightened the tendon through the tibial hole, and finally sewed 220 stitches to fix it.Understand? 220 stitches.

When I woke up from the anesthesia, I was terrified.My right leg shrank like an arm, and I looked like a deformed child with three arms and one leg.The severe pain destroyed me. In desperation, I said to my mother who was sitting with me in front of the hospital bed: "Mom, if you love me, you can kill me. I can't take it anymore." During the week, I lost 12kg in weight. Since then, I have played on the pitch with one and a half legs, and I still do.If I'm going to play without a problem at all physically, I can only play two or three games a year at most.Pain has always been with me.Pain does love me and never leaves me.If pain is a woman, she is my lover, a faithful and insatiable lover.Every day is a test for me, every training session could be the last training session.

When I arrived in Florence in the summer of 1985, accompanied by my father, I was extremely depressed. In early 1986, I met Maldeira, who had the same injury as me and underwent surgery at the same stage, and he was back on the pitch seven months later.I asked him why, and he told me that he had a very good masseur named Pani.From then on, I followed Pani, we became friends, and his help was indispensable to my recovery. In January 1986, I represented the Fiorentina youth team in the Viareggio Cup. On January 26, I sat on the bench in Serie A for the first time. Three days later, I played 17 minutes in Fiorentina's FA Cup match against Udinese.A day later, I played the whole game in Viareggio against the New York Pacific Cup, which we won 2-0, and I scored both goals.

On September 21st, I finally participated in the Serie A game against Sampdoria, but 4 days later, my old injury relapsed in training. On December 6th, I tried to play in a warm-up match against Sion, but the meniscus in my right leg was injured again.Persuaded by my mother, I returned to Saint-Etienne Hospital for another operation. Although the surgery was much simpler this time, I was terrified of waking up after surgery with the same pain as last time.As soon as I opened my eyes after the operation, I said to my mother, "Mom, when is the operation?" My mother replied, "Look, Robbie, the operation has been done and everything is going well." On the best day of my life For a split second, I said to myself, "Now I'm going back to the court, and I'm going to be invincible