When Vincent Candela was signed by Roma in January 1997, very few people thought that he would go down in the club’s history and be included in the voting for the Hall of Fame (Goalkeepers and Defenders category). In an interview on Roma’s official website he spoke about the time when he was about to leave Roma for Inter:
In the summer of 1999 though you did everything you could to leave Roma too…
“That’s also true. Come the end of the 1998/99 season Zeman decided to put me on the transfer list because I was no longer a part of his plans after two seasons together. We had some fun years with the Czech, we scored a lot of goals and had a strong side with me, Totti, Di Francesco and the rest. But I also had problems with Zeman and in the end our relationship turned sour. That’s why, following the final game of the season at Vicenza, I gave a toast to my team-mates in that I was sure I wanted a fresh start and was moving to Inter.”
And then?
“Then everything changed: Zeman was fired and Capello took over. He said I was not for sale and I became a key member of the team that would go on to win the Scudetto in 2001. Capello was a hard taskmaster, I exchanged some harsh words with him, but he remains without a doubt the best coach I had during my career. He knew how to manage the locker room, the mood around the club, everything: the press and everything that went on around the team.”
Source: asroma.it