In recent years Serie A has given us Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero and Antonio Di Natale, but Federico Bernardeschi’s decision to join Juventus shows that that brand of loyalty is now long gone.
It was a bitterly cold January night in Florence. Nothing however, could keep the Fiorentina supporters away from the Stadio Artemio Franchi that evening as they not only faced their most hated rivals Juventus, but planned a choreography to honour a club legend. That man was Giancarlo Antognoni, their former number 10 who had spent his entire Italian professional career with the club, and he had returned to become their Vice President.
Those fans had seen their hero return, easing the pain of their constant dispute with the current owners of the club. At this point, it is important to put the significance of Antognoni into context. His iconic status in Florence simply cannot be underestimated, the former attacking midfielder still holding the record number of appearances in a Viola shirt with 341 in Serie A between 1972 and 1987.
Widely regarded as one of Italy’s greatest players of all time, the elegant playmaker won the World Cup with the Azzurri in 1982. But he would not repeat such success at club level, collecting just one Coppa Italia trophy and one Anglo-Italian League Cup during his entire 15 years with the Viola. His loyalty has only ever been matched since by Gabriel Batistuta, and even he succumbed to a desire to win a Scudetto when he eventually moved to Roma in 2001.
With this in mind, it is easy to see why those fans wanted to create something special to honour the long overdue reinstatement of Antognoni in Florence. The result stirred those present to their very souls, the spine chilling “Unico 10” display could not have failed to melt even the most hardened of hearts. The evening was to get even better for those supporters, Fiorentina having pulling off a surprise 2-1 victory against the reigning champions, creating pandemonium under the stands at full-time.
Yet standing on the pitch was home-grown talent Federico Bernardeschi – himself wearing that same celebrated number 10 shirt – and six months later he would complete a transfer to those very rivals. The move was compared to that of Antognoni’s successor Roberto Baggio, whose transfer sparked riots in the city when he moved to Juventus in 1990.
That move triggered the modern-day rivalry, the so-called “thieves” of Juventus having robbed Fiorentina of success when they were on the very brink of it. The Viola had just been beaten by the Turin giants in the UEFA CUP final but Baggio could do little to stop his employers accepting a then World Record £8 million fee. A year later, the forward returned to Florence with his new side, famously refusing to take a penalty against them.
After having been substituted, he picked up a Fiorentina scarf that had been thrown to him from the stands afterwards claiming “deep in my heart I am always purple, the colour of Fiorentina.”
But in reality Bernardeschi’s move to Turin some 27 years later is totally different. The Carrara-native is unlikely to repeat this kind of gesture, having seemingly pushed the move forward himself.
“We’ve turned a fantasy idea into reality,” the player’s agent Beppe Bozzo told Tuttosport this week. “To transfer Bernardeschi from Fiorentina to Juventus, was not a market operation, it was like childbirth! We worked for eight or nine months. I have been privileged to work on so many difficult tasks, but this was the toughest.”
This revelation confirms that the move was already being planned on that January night, the stunning appreciation of Antognoni lost on a player that was already planning to chase success and silverware with that evening’s opponents. After a youth career with the Viola that started back in 2003, the Tuscan is all-too aware of the history between the sides, and the benefits of playing for a team in which he would have been adored.
Fiorentina fans may be romantic in their outlook, but they are no fools. They realised in the modern era that a player as special as Bernardeschi would never have stayed in the long term – especially with Fiorentina currently on a cost-cutting exercise – but how could he have done the unthinkable?
For a player unaffected by that display back in January, the answer is of course what drives so many modern-day footballers. Money, fame and success.
“Talking to young players about attachment to their shirt and colours today, for the most part, makes no sense. They become empty words. What counts is money and career,” Antongnoni told Corriere Fiorentino in a telling interview. “The truth is that the word flag-bearer has no meaning anymore in football. Totti closed an era. Earning more and more means they cannot become this. The reactions of fans? Many have realised that you may still want a player wearing your shirt, but they don’t get too attached. There is another way of cheering, cheering for the shirt and not for who wears it at the moment."
The sad part of all this is Antognoni is right. And if fans can no longer rely on the rare few that will wear their club’s colours over long periods of time then football has become irreparably damaged. For the pursuit of winning alone makes this sport sterile, and robs us of moments like the one witnessed in the Stadio Artemio Franchi back in January. It is the things that make us truly feel something that create attachment and emotion to football, something that cannot simply be replaced by simulation on a computer game.
It is not just Federico Bernardeschi that has a lot to answer for. The sport as a whole needs to take a long, hard look at itself in the mirror.
