From his childhood in Subiaco to the world triumph of 1982, Francesco «Ciccio» Graziani turns 73 and retraces his career among dreams, sacrifices and values. From his first steps in football to his arrival at Turin
The sporting life of Francesco «Ciccio» Graziani it was like a long and adrenaline-filled ride on the roller coaster, an exciting ride that became triumphant on 11 July 1982, when at the “Santiago Bernabeu” from Madrid became world champion with the national team: «I was a child who dreamed of doing something important in life – he says in the interview published on Vivo Azzurro TV on his 73rd birthday – I started with the idea of being an airplane pilot, but the real dream was to be a footballer.”
The modest family
The flight will still characterize his career, even without ever having held a control stick in his hands: «When there were crosses from Bruno Conti, Claudio Sala and Causio I had to get up as high as possible to score. When you make that technical gesture it’s a bit like flying.” Francesco was born in Subiaco, a town of just over 8 thousand inhabitants in the province of Rome. «Mum cleaned a doctor’s office, while dad was a bricklayer. He left the house at six in the morning and then returned at eight in the evening. Being very anxious, dad never saw me play football, he was afraid I would get injured. Once he was playing cards in the bar with his friends and they told him I had scored, he then offered everyone a round of drinks. Then once he got home he discovered that it wasn’t true.”
The Porsche for a day
Ciccio grew up with a ball at his feet, demonstrating from an early age that he had an edge over his teammates: «At the age of sixteen I went to Rome, in the Cinecittà district, to play with Bettini Quadraro. I then moved to Arezzo and my career began from there, taking me to where I ended up.” He made his debut in Serie A in November ’73, a month later he scored his first goal: «Torino was the ideal club, I found a group of wonderful teammates». On everyone Aldo Agroppi: «He was a big brother to me. In Arezzo I earned 250 thousand lire a month, At Torino they gave me a million. It was a lot of money. One day I passed a car dealership and saw one Porscheit cost five million. I bought it. When he saw it, Agroppi told me that I hadn’t made my Serie A debut yet and I couldn’t go around with a car like that. He accompanied me to return it to the dealer and made me give him a Cinquecento».
The championships
In the granata shirt he won the Scudetto in the 1975/76 season, the following year he became top scorer. He and Paolo Pulici become the “Gol Twins” for everyone: «In eight championships we scored 200 goals. A look was enough for us, we never spoke on the pitch. I believe there has never been such a prolific couple in Italian football.” Dal Toro moves on to Fiorentina, where he comes close to winning another Scudetto, then to Roma, where he comes one step away from raising the European Cup to the skies. Two heroes of the Spanish World Cup, he and Bruno Conti, missed the penalties that gave Liverpool the trophy on 30 May 1984: «The regret I have is that with that team we should have won much more. We have only won two Italian Cups, we finished second twice in Serie A and we lost a European Cup final on penalties in Rome, where Conti and I were negative witnesses of that match.” Sixty-four appearances and 23 goals. Graziani’s goal average for the national team is very respectable, making his debut in the blue shirt on 19 April 1975 in Rome with Poland
The World Cup
After participating in the 1978 World Cup (“I was a supporting player, we had a very strong team there too”), four years later in Spain he became one of the protagonists of the World Cupwhere he played all the matches as a starter, also scoring a goal in the matchday phase which would prove decisive: «My goal against Cameroon was liberating, it helped us get through the round thanks to the goal difference. After the first three games we received a lot of criticism, the straw that broke the camel’s back and led to press silence was when they made fun of the relationship between Cabrini and Paolo Rossi.”
«I like Gattuso»
The controversies do nothing but compact the group even more, where two figures such as play a fundamental role Dino Zoff and Enzo Bearzot: «More than a teammate, Zoff was an older brother. And then there was Bearzot, who wasn’t a technical commissioner but our dad. I also found myself talking to him about family issues.” His final against Germany lasted only seven minutes, and a shoulder injury knocked him out: «At that moment the important thing was for the team to reach the finish line. Altobelli came in in my place and did very well, scoring the third goal. Before the final, during his speech to the team, Zoff told us “guys, we can make our history and that of Italian football only if we bring that cup to Rome. Otherwise we will only be the first of the losers”. When Dino handed me the cup at the end of the match I remembered that dream as a child, I gave the cup a kiss and said to myself “Ciccio, now you can stop dreaming, you’ve reached the roof of the world”. From a world champion national team to an Italy that will be called upon at the end of March get your pass for the next World Cup: «I like the national team. I believe that Gattuso has brought back the sense of belonginggives me the impression that he is a big brother to the players. He has courage, character and personality. And he passes them on to his kids.” Sweet words also for his attacking “colleagues”: «We are reevaluating ourselves a lot. We have Kean and Retegui, who did very well, and Pio Esposito, who is coming through and has great enthusiasm. He must learn by watching Lautaro and Thuram, being together with these great strikers can be good for him. And then there’s Scamacca, of the attackers we have he’s the one I like the most.”
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