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Antonio Nocerino has reflected on his time with AC Milan, including playing alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic and under Silvio Berlusconi.
Nocerino had quite a unique player career, one which took him to the likes of Juventus and Genoa before he ended up at Milan in 2011. He spent five years with the Rossoneri, scoring 10 goals in his debut campaign and getting in the Serie A team of the year.
After leaving Milan, the Italian would head to West Ham, Torino and Parma on loan, before then joining Orlando City in Major League Soccer. His final club was Benevento, 2018, and he has since embarked on a career as a coach.
Nocerino spoke during an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport in which he revisited his time at Milan and some of the team-mates that he shared the field with.
When you think of football, what comes to mind?
“The endless games in the street. I grew up in Naples, in the Pallonetto di Santa Lucia neighbourhood, a place where you quickly learn to survive. I was a lively, smart child. My mother was a stay-at-home mom, my father a railroad worker. We didn’t eat much at home.
“Every now and then I helped my grandfather deliver chickens door to door; he owned a chicken shop. They taught me to live well with little.”
How did Juventus notice it?
“By chance. I was 13, my father was coaching me. A scout was in Agnano to check out another boy and spotted me. I was chubby, they called me ‘panzerotto’, but he immediately asked who I was.
“The funny thing is that before the last tryout I had back pain and almost didn’t play. My father convinced me to play: I scored two goals in half an hour.”
Was leaving Naples difficult?
“The day before leaving for Turin, my mother locked the door and hid the keys. I jokingly told her that I would come down from the balcony. I cried every night, it was foggy and we from the South were treated badly, but I didn’t give an inch. At Juve I learned discipline and seriousness.”
And were these concepts useful to you?
“They trained me. When I was 18, Avellino called me up to Serie B. Zeman noticed me in a game I shouldn’t have even played. It was my graduation year, and I asked to skip a tournament to brush up, but the coach called me up anyway.
“The Bohemian was in the stands. ‘You’ll be our midfielder,’ he said. ‘These guys are crazy,’ I thought. In the end, he made me a footballer, but in training he was a real powerhouse: we’d climb the steps… with our teammates on our shoulders.”
At the beginning of your career he had many teachers…
“I had Gasperini at Crotone, and I scored my first Serie A goal with Ventura in a game we lost by default. But the one who changed my life was Iachini at Piacenza, who moved me to midfield. He taught me all the moves.”
How did your return to Juventus come about?
“I wasn’t even supposed to go. Napoli, Udinese, and Fiorentina wanted me, but Ranieri told me to play my cards right. I saw Buffon, Nedved, Del Piero, and I thought, ‘What am I doing here? I’m carrying water bottles…’ I felt out of place.”
You eventually played 36 games, 26 of them as a starter…
“I’ve always competed for the best, but my strength was recognising my own qualities. I wasn’t Pirlo, I was Nocerino: I had to do my part well.”
After Juve, Palermo…
“The place where I had the most fun: I could have stayed forever. Three divine years, with barbecues, dinners, pranks, and phenomena: Miccoli, Pastore, Cavani, Ilicic. I didn’t care about the money. In 2010, Zamparini repaid everything and I went to Milan for €500,000. Thinking back, it makes me laugh.”
What was the impact like there?
“I saw Gattuso, Ambrosini, Van Bommel, and the others and thought, ‘Look, they’re putting me in the closet.’ And instead… boom: 11 goals across the league and cups.”
With how many assists from Ibra?
“Three or four. The approach was devastating: he hip-checked me in a practice match and I flew. But I was looking for goals. Zlatan was marked by two players, there was a chasm behind him. I slipped in there.”
Your best moment in red and black?
“The goal against Barcelona at Camp Nou with my father in the stands. It encapsulates where I started and where I’ve arrived, the suffering and the difficulties. That food on the table that was sometimes missing. From Piazza del Plebiscito to that stadium there…”
The worst, instead?
“The goal taken away from Muntari. Impossible not to see it. We would have won the Scudetto again.”
A word for Berlusconi?
“Aura. He knew my children’s names and even where they went to school…”
And for Allegri?
“Courage. He had it with me.”
English (US) ·