Striker who describes himself as an Italian 'leader of technique' faces Spain months after fearing death from serious illness
"I started having trouble speaking. I knew what I wanted to say, but the words did not come out. That is when I started to think about seeing my son one more time."
At first, Antonio Cassano did not think there was anything wrong with him. Earlier that night, in October last year, he had come off the bench to play a part in Milan's 3-2 win at Roma. The flight back to Malpensa had gone well and he was looking forward to seeing his family again. Then, on the bus from the airport, he started to feel ill. His head started to spin and he could not see well with his left eye.
Still, he did not want to listen to the team doctor, who kept urging him to go to hospital. "We argued for half an hour," Cassano recalled later, "before I agreed to visit the hospital. And that is when I started to have trouble speaking and thought about seeing my son again."
Cassano, it turned out, had suffered an ischemic stroke, which occurs when an artery to the brain is blocked. He was operated on four days later and left Milan's Policlinico hospital the following Sunday. No one knew when – or even if – he would return to a football pitch.
Cassano spent the next few months recovering – and pondering the fragility of life. Slowly, slowly, he regained the appetite for football. After all, the "whole world" had been in touch to wish him well and stated the desire to see him in a Milan shirt again. "If I am honest I was afraid of dying, in particular during those days before the operation," he said. "For 36 hours I did not understand anything. I struggled to speak and did not remember what had happened to me. But the important thing is that I got through it and that everyone, from Real Madrid to Barcelona, from Mourinho to Del Neri and even Iniesta phoned me. I know I have the power and the will to return to the pitch and I feel ready. If it is possible then I would like to play against Fiorentina on Saturday."
The interview was recorded on 5 April. Against Fiorentina, two days later, he came off the bench with six minutes remaining and nearly won a penalty. A week later, however, the Serie B player Piermario Morosini collapsed and died before he reached the hospital. For Cassano, it was his worst nightmare unfolding in front of his eyes. It almost proved too much. "I was feeling fine but after seeing perfectly fit sportsmen such as [Vigor] Bovolenta [a former Italian international volleyball player who died a few hours after a match in March 2012] and Morosini die suddenly I just wanted to give up. I seemed incapable of summoning the will to continue. My wife was really upset and concerned. I just sat there on my sofa, staring into the wall. I wanted to finish with football. I said: 'I give it all up, I am playing with my life here.'"
In the end, he was convinced to continue playing, with the Italy coach, Cesare Prandelli, having a profound impact on the decision. "First and foremost I was just pleased to be alive but Cesare Prandelli gave me a real push and desire to return to the game. He was fundamental in my recovery and kept telling everyone, and me in particular, that he would wait until the very last minute to make sure I made the squad for Euro 2012."
And whatever happens against Spain on Sunday, Cassano has already repaid Prandelli. Against the Republic of Ireland, which Italy had to win to progress from the group stage, he scored the first goal. Against Germany in the semi-final on Thursday night, he ran Joachim Löw's side ragged. The assist for Mario Balotelli's first goal was classic Cassano: creating space down the left he got to the ball before Mats Hummels, whom he then turned inside out with three touches of his right foot, before setting Balotelli up with a sumptuous left-footed cross. Balotelli's header was brutal, Cassano's assist sublime.
In the BBC studio, Gianluca Vialli said that Italy's No10 was a mix of Gianfranco Zola and Paolo Di Canio. He has, the implication was, the technique of Zola and the temperament of Di Canio. Vialli knows what he is talking about. The fact that Cassano will line up for Italy in a European Championship final at the age of 29 is a small miracle, even without taking his health scare into account.
His reputation precedes him. Even before he said he hoped "there were no gays in the Italian squad" at Euro 2012, for which he was rightly castigated, there had been enough incidents to suggest that Cassano was a man who was not serious enough to reach the top.
Cassano was born on 12 July 1982, the day after Italy had beaten West Germany to win the World Cup. His mother was forced to raise him alone as his father, Gennaro, was married to another woman, with whom he already had three children. Cassano never forgave the man who gave him his surname and in 2008, two years before dying, Gennaro Cassano told La Repubblica: "For him, I am the devil. When we meet in the street, he pretends that he does not know me, he does not even want to hear my name."
Cassano was not interested. He had his football. He failed trials at Internazionale (twice) and Parma (once) before being picked up by Bari. There he had two successful seasons before joining Fabio Capello's Roma as a 19-year-old in 2001, where he thrived, at times, and then self-destructed. Having already clashed with the Italy Under-21 coach Claudio Gentile, he severely tested Capello's patience, walking out of training on several occasions, leading the manager to coin the phrase Cassanata (Cassano-ism) to try to explain the behaviour of the Barese.
It is indicative that Capello still wanted to take Cassano with him to Real Madrid in 2006. In Spain, however, Cassano's career lost all momentum, which the player famously admitted in his autobiography. "I must have had sex with 600 or 700 women in hotels. And in Madrid it was easy because I lived in a hotel. The bell boy's job was to bring me three pastries after sex. He would hand me the pastries, I would hand him the girl, and he'd return her into the night. Sex plus pastries – could it be any better?"
He left after one season, 19 league appearances, two goals and, presumably, an insurmountable amount of pastries. Overweight and with his reputation on the line, he joined Sampdoria, first on loan and then, in 2008, permanently. It was the perfect move for him.
He regained his fitness and his confidence and the marriage to Carolina Marcialis in 2010 and the birth of their son, Christopher, a year later, calmed him down. And for four years he delighted the fans at Luigi Ferraris, taking the club into the 2010-11 Champions League qualifiers, where he scored a backheel against Werder Bremen. Once again, he had become too good for the top clubs to ignore and signed for Milan in January 2011.
Few thought then that the move would lead to a revived international career but, as Cassano pointed out recently, he has made "3,000 sacrifices" to reach the Euros. His partnership with Balotelli is arguably the most explosive and utterly unpredictable in the history of the European Championship, but it is equally mesmerising.
Cassano may have his faults but he can be endearingly honest and self-deprecating. Asked during Euro 2012 whether he could become a role model for Balotelli, he answered: "A leader is someone who runs more than the rest, and I don't do that. A leader is someone who is always humble, and I am not. A leader is someone who is always available from the morning to the evening, and I am not. Let's say, as Prandelli does, that I am a leader of technique."
Prandelli would not have it any other way and, after the win against Germany, hailed the striker's performance. "That was his best performance of the tournament so far, in terms of intensity, what he showed on the pitch, how he ran and how he fought," he said. "I knew he might be one of our key players at the tournament. He may only have 50 minutes in his legs but these are 50 fantastic minutes."
It is quite a turnaround for a player who feared he was going to die only eight months ago. But, as Cassano said at the time: "I want people to have good memories of Cassano; I don't want pity." Pity seems a long way away at the moment. Good memories, and a European Championship winner's medal, much closer. Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
