“I just say thanks to Inter and when the calendar will be released the first date that I will look for is Inter-Udinese: it is always nice to come home and San Siro has been my home. I thank the fans, my former teammates, the President, which for me is Moratti because I have not had another: thank you for having been able to fill that shirt with sweat, entering the story and carrying it forward.” Dejan Stankovic speaks to the Gazzetta dello Sport and focuses a lot on issues regarding the Nerazzurri, from his farewell to the arrival of Vidic. Deki is now at Udinese on the staff of Stramaccioni: “I could not bear to sit still: I had already been still enough even when I was still a player, unfortunately. And because I felt the need to give someone, once I’m off the football pitch, something of my past twenty years of football on the pitch.”
Yes, exactly, but there was a time when there was talk of continuing the story, right?
“I never say words that can trigger trouble: I was ready, but when there is a change of ownership it also takes time to fit in with the situation.”
And the story of Stankovic as a senior executive of the federation of Serbia, how did that turn out?
“In the federation I could have entered as assistant to Mihajlovic, if Sinisa had remained as the coach of the national team. As a director no: if the name Dejan Stankovic means something it is because I have earned it on the pitch and I would not have wanted a role that would only be given to me as a result of that name. I want to use that name with the same humility that it took for me to get it. I wanted to get experience, start over. In fact, today Deki is starting from zero, and it takes time: to study, to work, to live football hundred percent. At the cost of for the first time in my life tearing myself away from my wife and my children, who are now in Milan.”
Do you still play in the matches during training?
“Every time I get in front of a defense a few screams ‘shoot’. I took off my shoes just a year ago: I still feel the things you did when you played, starting with the blood in your veins. Especially in difficult times here, a thing that I think I can explain to the guys is how to react in certain situations.”
Do you feel that this will become your career?
“Yes, if I do something, I’ll do it head on and don’t give an inch. Even though it is a completely different thing from what it was before and now all I need to do is a tenth of what I did as a player. Occasionally I realize how inexperienced I am, but I don’t stay quiet: I raise my hand and ask.”
What did Vidic do with you, before signing and after he signed with Inter?
“He asked me a thousand things: about Italy, Italian Football, Inter, Pinetina, teammates. Everything, he wanted to know everything. What could I tell him as a player that would be news to him? For two years he was the best defender in the world, he’s still among the best: there’s not much to add. What you will discover is the man I knew for ten years in the national team: a serious person, a great professional, a leader.”
And what did you tell him?
“‘Nema, in Italy there is great attention to the organization, tactics. For years you’ve faced very strong attackers one on one, with highways behind you: here you’ll be playing with a cigarette in your mouth.'”
He is, however, not used to playing with the three-man defense?
“He will learn quickly because he’s smart and experienced, he can read the game in advance and take a position before the attacker.”
One thing that you have in common?
“He is much cooler than me, but I would say courage. Have you seen Braveheart? I don’t know how many times I have said ‘Nema, think about your health’, how many times he has split open his forehead or nose because he always goes in with the head and still without thinking about it.”
A captain in fact?
“The captain will be Johnny (Stankovic has always called Ranocchia that because it’s as thin as Johnny Stecchino) and rightly so: the other day I heard it and I told him. Still, Vidic will give him a nice hand: also to carry the armband well.”
Handanovic, Vidic, Kovacic, perhaps Kuzmanovic, Jovetic maybe. It’s quite a… Interic?
“They are all great players, I hope for the best for Inter, not against Udinese of course.”
But Pereyra could come from Udinese…
“I do not concern myself with the transfer market: but today I saw him on the pitch, he trains with us… still.”
Source: fcinternews.it