The situation
Arrigo Sacchi was never a prominent footballer, he did not become a professional, but he understood football like few others. During his time as coach he was crowned European champion twice with a historic Milan that formed a 4-4-2 with legends like Baresi, Maldini, Rijkaard, Ancelotti, Gullit or Van Basten. This innovated on the board and earned an indisputable place in the history of football also being runner-up in the world. The city of Madrid also has its place in this story. He entered the capital through the Vicente Calderón, where he spent a season as coach, but then returned to the Bernabéu. In December 2004, in the midst of the Galacticos era, the Italian signed as Real Madrid’s sports director. It lasted a year, but the experience for him remained in his memory as he acknowledges in an interview in Gazzetta dello Sport.
The details
Asked about the possible operation of an attacking trident at Inter made up of Lautaro Martínez, Romelu Lukaku, who is working on his return from Chelsea, and Dybala, who could sign after finishing his contract at Juventus, Fusignano’s coach did not hesitate to make a comparison with his time at Real Madrid. “I have always thought that teams are not made with trading cards. I was at Real Madrid as sports director in 2004-05 and they asked me to be a coach. Do you know what the attack was? I’ll tell you: Beckham, Raúl, Ronaldo, Zidane and Figo. On the bench, the first two substitutes were Morientes and Owen. It wasn’t a team, it was a movie. But the plot was missing, ”says Sacchi, recalling one by one all the Galacticos that Real Madrid fielded at the time. He acknowledges that before such an offer and seeing the lack of balance in the squad, he had to refuse to accept the position of coach before the president, Florentino Pérez. “So I thanked the president, but I refused. To protect the defense we would have needed two center-backs in bulletproof vests. Teams always need balance,” he added.