As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, co-written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli. 

Chapter 5 focuses mainly on Conte retiring as a player. We get confirmation (once again) on how money is less of a motivator for Conte than principles, we are reminded that while Moggi was a great DS he was also deceitful, and we find out Conte almost played with Vucinic with Zeman as coach for his hometown team Lecce.

 In the last two seasons as a player, Conte still feels like a leader in Juve’s locker room although he is no longer the captain and even a starter (I wonder if Del Piero felt the same way in his last season in Turin). He states that for players over 30 it becomes tricky with how they are perceived- when they play well it’s thanks to their experience and when they play poorly it’s because they have nothing left athletically. Conte mentions how much he admires the drive of Camoranesi, Tacchinardi, Nedved and Trezeguet- he feels that mentally he still is on their level, but his body cannot keep up with them. This is how he knew his career was almost over, and I suspect was a clear sign he knew he was going to be a coach someday.

Without even knowing it ahead of time, Conte plays his official last game in a Juve jersey on April 4th 2004 against Inter at San Siro, which Juve would lose 3-2, a game featuring Zanetti (whom Conte complimented both as a player and a man multiple times this  season) and one in which Vieri and Stankovic (a player who almost joined Juve a few years ago) scored for Inter- they probably celebrated Da Pino afterwards. The reason Conte didn’t know this would be his last game, is because he was expecting to exercise the 3rd year option in his contract (this was covered in part 3 of these reviews). When Conte sat down with Moggi to tell him he wanted to exercise that clause in the contract- he mentions that while he felt old he still had his trademark grinta- he was told Juve wanted to significantly cut his salary. Conte was furious, but Moggi told him the conditions had changed at Juve’s end. Conte did prove that principles mattered more than money to him, since he refused the offer because he doesn’t believe in not keeping your word.

Conte mentions how much he regrets fact he did not get to play for Capello, who had just replaced Lippi as Juve’s coach (Ibrahimovic and Cannavaro would have been two of his new teammates as well). Conte describes Capello, as a winner and someone who is tough and direct (all qualities we associate with Conte). While Conte and Capello have talked trash a little bit in the media this season, the two clearly respect each other- Capello even asked Conte to join his staff after he retired as a player, a move that was vetoed by Moggi and Giraudo because of the disagreement over Conte’s last contract at Juve. While Conte did not have a good relationship with Juve the club during this period, his bond with Juve’s fan base got even stronger, since it was the ultras who organized Conte’s farewell match as a player.

Conte missed the pitch as the season approached, so he asked his hometown (and first) club Lecce if he could practice with their Primavera team. He was so impressive, that he was eventually offered to play for the first team which featured strikers Bojinov (he played 18 gams scoring 5 goals for Juve in the Serie B season) and Vucinic- one of Conte’s favorite players on his current Juve. Ironically the coach of the team was Zeman, who has praised Conte very much as a coach this season (Conte also voted for Zeman as Serie B’s best coach for his work at Pescara). Two events prevented Conte from ending his career where it had started: 1) upon hearing Conte was about to sign with team 2,000 Lecce ultras demonstrated in front of the team headquarters against the move- they had never forgiven Conte for what they believed was an excessive goal celebration in a match against Lecce  a few years back (Conte described it in a previous chapter, and mentions that he was just very excited for scoring his first goal after his knee injury and didn’t mean to disrespect his former club) 2) Zeman didn’t publicly support the move when asked by the media. This story made me think of how it would have been a much better ending for Del Piero’s career to join Padova last summer, just like Lecce for Conte, Padova was both Del Piero’s first and hometown club and he wouldn’t have faced Juve as an opponent. In any event, it’s a shame we did not get to read a chapter of Conte playing for Zeman.

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