Fabio Capello’s authoritarian democracy

«I was sure he would become an excellent technician. I was wrong. He became the best». (Nils Liedholm on Fabio Capello, quoted in “History of Football Ideas”, Mario Sconcerti). It is rare to hear such a clear judgment from the great Liddas, a stratospheric character who usually preferred the use of hyperbole when referring to himself: not such a far-fetched judgment, even if one only glances at it The board of directors of the technician Pieris throws a very rich hint. Yet, oddly enough, he is one of the most successful characters in the history of our football essentially ignored by modern bards, and he finds it terribly difficult to leave the narrow confines of the news and enter the legend. Why?

But Fabio Capello’s earthly existence is full of exciting events that lend themselves well to becoming a traditional myth. Let’s just think about the narrative of its creation: to the fatheran elementary school teacher returning home, step by step, one meter at a time, after experiencing firsthand the horrors of war and then of war concentration camp. «He was born in Hungary because his grandparents moved there in 1915. Since he did not join the Republic of Salò as an artillery captain, he was taken prisoner. He experienced the horrors of six concentration camps.” recalls Fabio Capello in an interview with Corriere della Sera.

And again: “It survived because in the last period.” he ate potatoes. He told me that as fragile as they were, even laugh it could have been dangerous, almost fatal.”

The opportunity to enjoy your dearest affections again, the quiet everyday life that you have wanted for so long and which seemed finally lost, ignites the enthusiasm that is the longing for life. From that spark nine months later, in June ’46 and in deep Friuli (in Pieris, a district of the municipality of San Canzian d’Isonzo, province of Gorizia) what we know today as Fabio Capello was born.